The Creative-Expressive Abilities Assessment (CEAA) tool is designed to obtain in-depth information about the expressive abilities of seniors with dementia. The tool focuses on a wide range of abilities that have shown improvement when seniors participated in creative activity programs. The CEAA tool is easy to use and provides a convenient method for quantifying changes in behavior. The tool can be used, for example, for comparing the effectiveness of creative activity programs or to ensure the successful matching of activities to the unique needs of each client or of a group.

The CEAA tool consists of 27 items related to the these abilities: memory, attention, language, psychosocial, reasoning & problem solving, emotion and culture. While clients participate in a creative activity program, their responses are recorded and rated by an observer trained on the CEAA.
The CEAA has good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .89), as well as good inter-rater reliability (Cronbach’s Kappa = .83) (Gottlieb-Tanaka, Lee and Graf, 2008). This package includes the CEAA rating form (may be used for making observations on 4 clients), the CEAA user guide, 1 USB memory stick with fillable observation forms and the Creative-Expressive Facilitator's Self-Assessment Checklist.

Section 1: Developing the CEAA.
This DVD provides an introduction to the Creative-Expressive Abilities assessment tool (CEAA). It includes interviews with Dr. Dalia Gottlieb Tanaka, Hilary Lee and Dr. Peter Graf, in which they describe the reasons that led to their collaboration in developing this tool. Dalia Gottlieb-Tanaka discusses her experience collecting the data at a care centre in Canada, while Hilary describes hers in Australia. Peter Graf provides information on the data analysis. Clips from the discussions of the two focus groups in Canada and Australia provide further insights that helped shape this project and the developers own way of thinking. (98 minutes long)

Section 2: Demonstrating the use of the CEAA.
This DVD shows filmed clips taken during the development of the Creative-Expressive Abilities assessment tool (CEAA). The clips are divided into the 7 domains of responses that are addressed on the observation forms. It begins with a menu that lists the specific items covered. You can jump to any topic you choose for a hands–on demonstration in real situations. You will be able to identify and understand the types of responses that demonstrate creative abilities when you put this easy-to-use tool to work. (125 minutes long)

Section 3: Fillable Forms
This CD contains fillable observation forms and the Creative-Expressive Facilitator's Self-Assessment Checklist.

TOOL Description and Benefits:

The CEAA Tool consists of 27 items related to the following abilities: memory, attention, language, psychosocial, reasoning & problem solving, emotion and culture. While clients are participating in a creative activity program, their behavior is recorded and rated by an observer trained on the CEAA.

Significance of the Newly Developed Assessment Tool
The rapid aging of society, and the corresponding increase in the population of seniors with dementia, will create enormous pressures on the health care system, pressures that threaten creative activities and other programs, which are critical for the well-being and quality of life of seniors living with dementia. We are convinced that an assessment tool, such as the one we are developing, will help creative expression facilitators, care facility administrators, the medical establishment and the families of people with dementia appreciate how such programs contribute to the seniors' quality of life.

Benefits

If you are a creative expression facilitator:

1. You will be able to observe your clients’ creative abilities in a systematic way and monitor any changes in those abilities over time.
2. You will have a document that is easy to complete and read at glance.
3. You will have a document with reliable results for reporting in meetings with your colleagues, administration and families.
4. It is an excellent assessment tool to get to know new clients and document their creative expression abilities.
5. You will be able to monitor your sessions and how effective they are by analyzing the responses of your clients.
6. You can use the tool as a guide in planning your activities to suit each client.

If you are an administrator of a care facility:

1. You will be able to monitor how your residents respond to various programs.
2. You will have a tool that provides specific reports on residents’ creative abilities to complement medical reports.
3. You may use this tool in planning your budget for effective recreation activities and guidance in hiring facilitators.

If you are a researcher:

1. You will have a tool which is based on solid quantitative research.
2. You will be able to measure creative abilities in a quantitative way following these ratings.
   • Testing the tool yielded consistent results among raters with 80% agreement most of the time.
   • The tool is internally consistent in demonstrating whether the items measure the same things or different things at higher than 0.9.
   • Comparing scores that were achieved when rated in real time vs. video observation by 2 trained observers revealed similar scores, and the Inter-rater agreement measured around 0.8.
   • In contrast, observations of non-structured activities as residents go about their daily routines and do not engage in creative expression activities revealed very low scores.
3. It will provide you an excellent way to monitor your subjects in a range of domains, such as memory and attention.
4. The accompanying manual is easy to follow and an excellent training resource.

“Dementia Care Australia has chosen to provide participants at our International Spark of Life Master Practitioner Course with this ground breaking assessment tool. These are leaders and educators from aged and community care who wish for their organisations to become Spark of Life Centres of Excellence. The Creative Expressive Abilities Assessment Tool is included as an essential method as part of the evaluation process.

The tool is unique in its ability to measure the strengths and abilities of clients/residents in a non-intrusive way. The language is person-centred and positive and it gives staff the skills to describe specifically and in detail the improvement they are observing. The tool is also holistic which means it is in line with the new paradigm in which Spark of Life operates.”

Jane Verity Founder and CEO Dementia Care Australia

This tool has great potential for enabling staff to measure the positive results of meaningful activity; this is a very valuable to covering areas of assessment previously untapped (to my knowledge). Once you are familiar with it, it is very simple & quick to fill in - the set up of the form allows re-evaluation on the same page at a future date which assists with comparing results ( eg.. before meaningful activity, during and/or after.)

Jeni Winslow, Spark of Life Master Practitioner and Occupational Therapist, Western Australia

Quotes in support of the assessment tool (CEAA)

Here are responses from the focus group. Everybody had an opportunity to respond and all said they would use it:

• I will use it. It is a good way to become familiar with new residents
• It will help staff understand the abilities of the residents
• Good tool for residents’ care conference
• Will help in placing a resident in a suitable program
• It is user friendly
• It validates our work in communication with other professionals in the facility
• I will use it and keep it in the charts of the residents
• Once we get familiar with the tool it will be easier to use it
• The tool will show care aides what we do and why
• It will help me pinpoint the details in my work
• Help remind what the client did
• Gives hard evidence. This is the most crucial element of the tool
• It is an objective tool Help families in becoming effectively interactive in a meaningful way

Article on the use of the CEAA tool:

Wolf Project: Evaluation of the Creative Arts in Aging at Cedar Village by Elizabeth “Like” Lokon, PhD; Jennifer Kinney, PhD; Philip Sauer, MGS; and Suzanne Kunkel, PhD (July, 2012)