Objective

The idea driving our work in this video is to offer hope to millions of people caring for a loved one with dementia. According to the CDC, nearly 6 million people in the U.S. were living with Alzheimer's and related dementias in 2020. 

Not being able to connect with loved ones and feeling helpless in their decline takes a massive toll on caregivers’ mental health. Our goal with this video was to educate and inspire our audience on impactful ways to engage with people who have dementia or any kind of memory decline. We did this by telling the story of theater artist Anne Basting, who works in a memory care center and whose own mother has dementia. Basting recognized that the way that people interact with people living with dementia is often ineffective and belittling. Instead of focusing on memory recall of the past, Basting uses improv to engage and stimulate dementia patients in the present. Her work has been shown to effectively enhance the communication, creativity, alertness, and joy of those with dementia. We hoped Basting’s story would inspire people to interact differently and more effectively with the family members or loved ones in their lives who have dementia. 

This video is part of AARP’s “Real People, Real Stories” series, which celebrates the actions of ordinary individuals from diverse backgrounds whose actions have made an extraordinary impact on themselves and a wider community.

Strategy

We brought this story to life by building trust with our main subject, Anne Basting, and staying committed to the key elements of our “Real People, Real Stories” storytelling format. At every touch point, we established a connection with Anne Basting, which allowed her to share her personal story in a compelling way.

Since it can be challenging for people to immediately understand what Basting means by “improvisation,” we developed a plan of action to capture and show real-time sessions of Basting doing improv with dementia care patients so people could understand exactly how it works and how to implement her techniques themselves. 

We also made the important choice to include Basting’s personal story of having a mom with Alzheimer’s. We thought it would be more impactful to our audience if they saw the personal investment that Basting has in this cause and how intimately she understands what it’s like to have a loved one with memory decline.

Finally, we published this video during National Family Caregivers month to honor and recognize the more than 42 million unpaid family caregivers in the U.S.

Results

The results of the video met our team’s objectives and exceeded our expectations. The video became one of our most popular episodes of our Real People, Real Stories series, reaching over 2.9 million people, with 2.3 million video views and 120,539 engagements. 

Viewers connected with the video’s message of connecting more humanly and effectively with those who have dementia. Countless people mentioned how the video inspired them to use Basting’s teachings to interact differently and more impactfully with the loved ones in their lives struggling with dementia.

 Here is a representative sample of the thousands of comments on Facebook: 

• “Thank you for sharing. I will certainly use this with my mom and with those that she is living with. Bless you, Anne Basting.”
•  “It's so important to change the old ways that do not work. My mother lived with me for 2 years, before she had her stroke, and she was isolated… I wish I knew that that this type of creativity and interaction was possible.”
• “Wish my mother had this program when she was alive. Keep up the great work”
• “I AM SO ASTOUNDED, this video was definitely and Eye opener!!! I understand more deeply why My Mom, and all the ones along with her in her assisted living facility react the way they do!!”

Media