Grant Project II Announcement:

"Cooking and Gardening with Care-Givers of Elders with Dementia: Humanizing Inquiry into Care-Provider Burn-Out" brings together researchers from the humanities and sustainability studies, and it seeks to network with others on campus whose research into environmental and mindful practices are being leveraged to address compassion fatigue of caregivers and support high-quality memory of care of elders. The ecology of elder care takes place at the margin of our industrialized society. In assisted living facilities, aging elders—often facing dementia—finish their years under the care of low-income employees, many of whom are first-generation immigrants. This project seeks to explore holistic, relational approaches to dementia care that counter the mind-body, human-nature, self-other split infused in these important, wide-spread, and often invisible relationships in which human care is a multi-billion dollar industry. Engaging with care-givers in gardening and cooking practices, this project proposes this hands-on mode of humanistic inquiry as an antidote to care-provider burn-out.

​

This project is supported by a Seed Grant through The Institute for Humanities Research (IHR) at Arizona State University. The Institute for Humanities Research (IHR) supports research and creative engagement with what it means to be human in a constantly changing world. The IHR connects university and partner communities in celebrating the best of what the Humanities can accomplish across cultures, times and space. The seed grant program supports humanities-based projects that engage with social challenges in the past, present or future. 

​

“We’re looking forward to our participation, and we’re excited to do something like this with our valued residents in mind.”

 

For more about Desert Haven Assisted Living Care Home and Apollo Residential Assisted Living, visit https://www.deserthavenaz.com/.