Missing the point : dementia, biomedicine and dramatherapy

While the arts therapies cannot be placed into the same category as complementary medicine and do not come under the legal ramifications of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), there remain considerable barriers to their trained therapists’ acceptance as clinical practitioners, despite having Masters level training. Art therapy now has its own professional award as psychotherapy; however, drama-therapy is seen as a complementary therapy, even though it is registered to the same standard as art and music therapy by the Australia and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association (ANZATA). However, the arts therapy modalities (art, drama, dance and music therapy) are not readily accepted in mainstream medicine, and certain simple tasks may only be fulfilled by a doctor, nurse, social worker, occupational therapist or psychologist ‘for medico-legal reasons’. In biomedical approaches to dementia, for example, environments for people’s care have been constructed around the needs of the carers who are well rather than asking the individuals and communities themselves what their needs are. This chapter encompasses the gesture of self-healing for participants that is present in her specific area of drama therapy. The chapter will include a meta-analytical response to the challenging discourse of institutions that tick biomedical boxes and put medication before individual needs in dementia care.