Creativity: Rethinking Care for Aging and Dementia

This 45-minute workshop invites participants to experience how assumptions about aging and dementia show up in everyday interactions. It explores how creative, engagement-based approaches can shift those moments. Rather than focusing on programs or clinical models, the session centres on empathy, presence, and the human experience of aging and dementia.

Through personal storytelling, guided reflection, and simple participatory activities, participants are encouraged to reflect on how stigma, fear, and misunderstanding can limit connection. The session also explores how creativity can open new pathways for engagement. Drawing on the Arts & Aging Network’s dementia-inclusive approach, this workshop highlights how care can feel when people are met with curiosity, patience, and respect. 

Erin Winsor (she/her) is an Aging and Dementia Advocate, Certified Dementia Care Provider, and the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Arts and Aging Network. With a background in musical theatre, administration, and dementia care, Erin brings together professional arts practice and dementia-inclusive engagement to create meaningful, accessible experiences for older adults and young people.

She has worked in a range of care and community settings, including non-profits, long-term care, home care, and youth services, while always remaining active in Newfoundland and Labrador’s music and theatre community. Erin is deeply passionate about using the arts to support health, connection, and wellbeing, and is committed to reducing stigma around aging and dementia through creative, community-based work.