Music sparks memories for those with Alzheimer’s
Music resonates with all of us, according to the Nathaniel Witherell Short-Term Rehab and Skilled Nursing Center on Parsonage Road in Greenwich, “even for those suffering from severe Alzheimer”™s disease or other forms of dementia.”
With that in mind, The Witherell is working with New York-based Music and Memory, a nonprofit, to bring personalized music into the lives of the elderly or infirmed through digital music technology.
- Witherell resident Cordella Shaw listens to personalized music recently. Photo courtesy The Witherell
According to Lynn Mason, a board-certified music therapist at the Witherell, “The goal is to create and provide personalized playlists using iPods to enable those struggling with Alzheimer”™s, dementia and other cognitive and physical challenges to reconnect with the world through music-triggered memories and emotions.”
Cordella Shaw, 94, was one of the center”™s first participants in the Music and Memory program. She recently listened to her iPod in one of the Witherell”™s newly remodeled porch areas and, according to Witherell, “enthusiastically sang along with her beloved religious and gospel music.”
According to Jayne Kennelly, nurse manager at The Witherell, “Mrs. Shaw was noticeably more alert and chatty for hours following listening to her music on the iPod. It was wonderful to see.”
Witherell”™s Music and Memory pilot program is beginning with Shaw and four other residents who do not respond well in a group setting.
“Our target population is prone to social isolation, anxiety and depression,” Mason said. “The music and memory program can be another tool for reaching these residents and helping them to connect more to the world around them, organize their thinking, and function at their highest potential. On another level, it just brings pure joy.”
Mason said Witherell”™s program is dependent on a true “person-centered care” approach, with a resident”™s musical interest being gathered from staff, family and friends, who become part of the team that develops “a very tailored, personalized playlist for each resident and helps him/her access the music.”
“Playlists can include a lullaby their mother sang to them as a child, their wedding song, a favorite opera, gospel music or folksongs, or we may search for songs that were popular during the resident”™s early years,” Mason said.
While Mason was approached about the Music and Memory program by its founder, Dan Cohen, in 2012, it had to be tabled until Witherell”™s Project Renew renovation was completed in late 2014. In mid-January, some 20 to 30 Witherell nursing, recreation, volunteer and chaplaincy staff members received the training required for the program. The Witherell is now one of four organizations in Fairfield County and a dozen in Connecticut to become a Music and Memory-certified facility.
Thomas Saccardi, a member of Witherell”™s board of directors, also attended the training. Saccardi, who first heard about Music and Memory when his wife took him to see a documentary about it called “Alive Inside,” said, “I”™ve also seen the program up and running at another nursing home facility and watched the residents miraculously respond to the music. It was clear evidence we should do this here, and when I presented the program to the board they embraced it wholeheartedly.”
Mason said the goal is to eventually expand the program at The Witherell outside the domain of the nursing home and into the short-term rehab center, where it can help reduce pain and boredom experienced by rehab patients and increase their ability to relax. “For now we are starting small, but there is great potential for broadening this terrific program,” she said.
For more information, including about donating iPods and specific types of CDs, call Mason at 201-618-4217. The facility can accommodate 202 patients.