The Bringing Art to Life (BATL) intervention sought to improve psychological functioning and quality of life in persons with dementia (PWD), with possible indirect benefits to caregivers, through art-based therapies. Undergraduate students facilitated the implementation of BATL with PWD within an adult day service program, caregivers participating vicariously. Respite care and BATL program effects were hypothesized to improve caregivers’ mood (Zarit et al., 2017). Art therapy has been shown to lower depression (Kim et al., 2021) and improve caregiver positive affect (Emblad & Mukaetova-Ladinska, 2021; Kaimal et al., 2018).

The art therapist-led sessions occurred once per week for 90 minutes lasting eight weeks. Pre-post survey data assessed caregiver depression using The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) and affect using The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988). Paired t-tests determined pre-post-intervention differences.

Respite services for PWD combined with the BATL intervention had positive effects for dementia caregivers participating vicariously. Specifically, depression and negative affect subtly reduced, while positive feelings were unaffected. Limitations include a small and homogeneous sample in one adult day service setting, limiting generalizability. Future directions should identify implementation strategies to improve caregiver motivation and intervention engagement as well as dissemination to other regions and treatment settings.