Geriatrician Mike Cantor, MD, JD, is also CEO of Cantor Group, fractional chief medical officer for digital health companies—and, in his infinite free time, a supporter of Dementia Spring!
Since its inception, Dr. Cantor has been on board to change the stories we’re telling about dementia.
“There is a gap in the current dementia support world that has to do with reducing loneliness through art to achieve healing,” Dr. Cantor says. “And bringing together the arts is a way to express the challenges of dementia, learn about dementia, and make it easier to cope with dementia. It’s really a great idea and it’s fantastic to see that it’s taking off.”
Dementia is a personal as well as a professional issue because Dr. Cantor’s mother is living with non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment, which impacts how she processes information, specifically attention, focus, and executive function. These personal and professional experiences give Dr. Cantor a unique perspective on the needs of people with dementia and their families.
Bringing together the arts is a way of both expressing the challenges of dementia and learning about dementia and coping with dementia. It’s really a great idea and it’s great to see that it’s taking off.
Mike Cantor
While supporting Dementia Spring’s mission, Dr. Cantor is also motivated by his personal goal to create greater access to the arts for those with dementia and their caregivers.
“I think we can do a lot more to help people with dementia and their families in terms of providing access to art and music to help them, because the arts have a major positive impact on our emotions and, even if you have dementia, usually there’s still an intact emotional response. And art can soothe people, excite them, depending on the art and how the person interacts with it. It’s really something that music and art can do in such a positive way to help people with dementia.
“It can also help people to understand what this is! So if you’ve never had someone in your family who has dementia or cognitive impairment, if you see movies or plays, or read books, you have a lot more understanding. So that educational component is really important.”
In a future world, Dr. Cantor says, we will have our cognitive health for longer and it will be more robust.
“Treating cognitive health, not just people who are sick and already have dementia or cognitive impairment, is the vision for the future. Just like we do with diet and exercise for our physical health, we can do the same thing for our cognitive health.”
Until that day comes, he said he’ll also accept (1) treatments, (2) affordable care/assistance, and (3) access to education through the arts!
Well, we can help with that last one! If you also appreciate this work and this mission, please consider becoming a donor here.
