Use of puppets in a residence for the elderly

Creative Arts Coordinator Janice McMurray, on the staff of the Hermitage Methodist Home in Richmond, VA, uses puppets as a communication tool with elderly health-care patients. While puppet variety shows based on musical routines and religious parables improve communication between active residents and nursing unit residents, even the simplest puppet has a role to play at the Hermitage. McMurray uses "basic form" puppets, which express feelings nonverbally to help patients incapable of speaking. Sock puppets [see clarification farther into this article] assist Alzheimer's and other confused patients to communicate in small groups. Larger puppets, made by the residents themselves, go "on the road" with stage and props. The residents take pride in their puppet characterizations (one puppet represents a Hermitage Home board member) or particular contributions (a blind patient makes puppet hair). "Puppets help people in an institutional setting to maintain their personhood," says McMurray. "I use them to bring people to life."