Effective design of traditional Japanese tea ceremony in a group home for the elderly with dementia

Our group home is based on the following concept: “With the collaboration of medical treatment and nursing care, we make it our goal to have everyone smile every day and live life in accordance with their true selves.” There are many ways of inducing smiles, and one of them is providing recreation rooted in Japanese traditional culture. We arrange events according to the season. In this way we seek to arrange the environment and offer an individualized care plan for the care of elderly persons with dementia whom we make every effort to support every day. As dementia progresses, it becomes impossible to maintain relationships or to remember one’s past. Vexation and antagonistic attitudes become prominent due to anxiety, and communicating becomes problematic. But we have discovered that elderly persons with dementia change through participation in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, recovering their smiles and their dignity. The tea ceremony is a tool enabling them to concentrate and share information with staff. This record shows the gradual introduction of tea ceremony at our group home.