Art therapy for the elderly?

hey guys, i'm heading a volunteer program for Hospice. it's a summer program where we get teens to come visit people at the nursing home, and i'm the adult in charge of heading the art therapy program

what would be some good art projects for the elderly that take less than an hour and would be easy and they would like?

Goldwing is right-be careful here. I teach art to all ages, especially the seniors, and I have a totally different approach with the seniors.
I usually have 3 different classes-beginner, Inter., and advanced. I start everyone out with pad and pencil and ask who has had prior experience. With that one question I learn a lot.
Yes! Some of the seniors used to be outstanding in art and the trick is see what their their skill are now & how to get them back to the level they used to be before age (or something else) caused them to lose their skills. If you don't know what certain diseases cause then ask and also talk to doctors, family, a good medical book, etc. to understand. There are many ways to help as you teach and I have only stated a very few-too little space here. Art will not be the only thing you teach-could include working with a therapist too.
Polyclays are great but first used a pad and pencil to find out skill levels and Ask them about their art levels.

I should recomend painting. Because most people can paint or even do something with a brush.

These folks are very don't judge a book by it's cover. They like to look at ink blots and discover what things look like as as much as they like cloud gazing. Your best bet is to get some print copies of very old relic paintings from the gold and bronze ages and have them identify them. The first one to drop out of this class wins a jar of jelly beans.
The first one that identifies correctly gets a free order from an avon catelogue, and the second that answers closest gets something from the dollar store and so on.

Since elderlies often don't have fine motor skills left to them, anything that exercises these would be wonderful.

How about clay modelling, especially if you can find a plasticene clay that is easy to manipulate? And if you want them to have a permanent baked keepsake, polymer clays are the best ones to use.

Please be very careful here....You are unsuspectedly treading on dangerous grounds. If anyone, someone cannot do art, or worse yet, was once decent at art of any kind, and suddenly find they can no longer do it, it will be a major blow to them...this is not uncommon. Please...take a survey in the home itself and see what the people want to do ... do not try to 2nd guess them, for that is how we treat children, and childish or not, these people know they are not children. good luck

I don't know where you are writing from--but, in the U,S.--there is a big difference between seniors in a nursing home or persons with disabilities in a nursing home and someone in Hospice. Hospice is defined as palliative care rendered to someone who has a life expectancy of six months or less.

To answer question: decoupage--photos on memory boxes or anything for that matter.