[Adta] marketing dmt to geriatric settings

[Christine Hopkins]

Hi Megan--

There is actually quite a bit of literature on geriatrics dmt.  The ADTA website has an extensive bibliography which you can review to see what appeals to you there.  Also there are some conference proceedings articles from past years--contact me if you want a couple that I've written and I can send hard copy.  

However, it seems from your email that your purpose is marketing dance therapy services to the admin folks at the nursing homes & senior centers where you are.  You may want to consider the Dale Carnegie approach (he's famous author of the classic How To Make Friends & Influence People, highly recommended).  When I'm approaching a nursing home for a new gig, I write a letter that outlines the Benefits To The Facility of having dmt groups there.  I don't mention anything about published research and I don't think the folks that run the facilities are particularly interested in or comfortable with highly technical publications.  Your situation, of course, may be quite different.

Further thoughts and leads to consider--  You could do a psychwatch search online.  Pointers for how to go about some online research are on the ADTA website.  But my selling points to facilities are about:  socialization, improved care-receiving behaviors, staff respite, family members' enjoyment, positive appearance of joyful lively activities in the setting, physical activity, improved bonding responses to staff, having fun!, etc.  

It's pretty much the first principle of marketing is you don't talk about what you do or how good you are at it, you talk about the benefits to the client using everyday language.  I find myself always trying to define dance therapy or describe dance therapy and I have to remind myself that what people usually want to know is how dance therapy will meet their needs or improve their lives and I don't need to explain how I do dmt or what my skills are, they don't need to know that!

There are some dmt's working in long term care in Canada, so if you want to network with them, you could subscribe to the DMTElderly listserv at yahoogroups.com to get in touch with them.  They could get you some testimonial comments from an admin person where they work to include in your proposal letter, for example.

Lots of resources available to you and good luck in achieving your goals!

Christine Hopkins



Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2006 12:34:11 -0600
From: mdillenbeck at naropa.net
Subject: [Adta] recent articles re: seniors & DMT
To: adta at adta.org
Message-ID: <20060905123411.y1iii7jpws8o8ck4 at www.naropa.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

  Hello All,

  I'm working to compile some information on the benefits of using
DMT with individuals living in Nursing homes and Senior Centers here
in Edmonton, Alberta. I'm hoping to "wow" the administrators into
allowing me to start up a regular group with these seniors and was
hoping some of you might have current research or articles that you
could pass on to me so I might share it with them!

  Thanks so much!!

  Megan Dillenbeck

---
Naropa University - an adventure in mind, body, and spirit.
http://www.naropa.edu

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.adta.org/pipermail/adta/attachments/20060906/ae82f0dd/attachment.htm