Dementie met een glimlach – SOLD OUT

Dementia with a smile is an encounter between a clown and people in deep dementia. A meeting without words.

People with dementia gradually disappear into a state of mental and social isolation. In the end they no longer have a foothold on life. This makes dementia an extremely frightening process. How extreme is this fear if words and functions lose their meaning? Can you make contact without language?

Mime clown Arno Huibers poses this question in his book. The clown meets the person with dementia, without expectations and without plan. But with imagination. They meet each other in their own logic, in an encounter that feels logical, and with eye contact in which a smile is visible. Such humorous moments are small miraculous meetings, even if only briefly.

This book is a report of a search for contact, with practical instructions and backgrounds. A book for care-home employees. For caregivers. Family. For clowns in healthcare. And also for people involved in caring for people with multiple disorders.

With beautiful illustrations, anecdotes, poems, interviews and photos.