Music & Memory: An Exploration of Music's Impact on Dementia and Aging

Early Memories and Music

An elderly woman reflects on her 90 years, but has difficulty recalling specific memories from her youth.
An experiment involves using music to stimulate memories and transport the woman back in time.
The song "When the Saints Go Marching In" evokes memories of her school days, sneaking out to dances against her mother's wishes and working at King County.
Recollection of past experiences and family events, such as working in Fort Jackson and her son's birthday. Mentions her birthday is November 20th, but missing the year.

Dan Cohen's Music & Memory Project

Dan Cohen's effort to bring music to elders with dementia in nursing homes.
Music connects individuals with their past, present and identities and familiar surroundings.
Old age involves the gradual loss of familiar things and identity.
This project documented over three years, showcases the transformative effects of personalized music.

Social Work and Music

A social worker combines their professional background with a passion for music to help nursing home residents.
The goal is to discover music that residents will recognize and enjoy, particularly gospel music for one resident named Henry.

Henry: A Case Study

Henry, a dementia patient needing total assistance with daily activities, hadn't been very responsive prior to the intervention.
Before the music, he was isolated and withdrawn.
His daughter, Cherry, describes Henry as fun-loving and musical before his condition worsened. She recalls childhood memories of him singing and dancing.
Music evokes emotions and stimulates various parts of the brain, including memory and emotions.
After listening to personalized music:
- Henry becomes more awake and responsive.
- He is able to recognize his daughter.

Music and Reconnecting with Identity

Music helps Henry to regain his identity and recall memories.
Dan asks Henry about his favorite things from when he was younger.
- Henry shares a memory of riding a bicycle to earn money.
Music evokes feelings of love and romance.
He expresses a sense of being a "holy man" with sounds given to him.

The Impact of Music on Individuals with Dementia

Music helps individuals connect with their sense of self and reduces confusion.
Music provides pleasure and reduces struggle and negative thinking.
There are 5 million people in America with dementia and a million in nursing homes who are losing their connection to life.
The desire to awaken another person is a deep part of being human.
For those with dementia, music can act as a "back door" into their minds.
The parts of the brain responsible for music memory and response are less affected by Alzheimer's disease.
Music activates multiple brain areas including auditory, visual, emotional, and coordination centers.
Music correlated with meaningful memories and feelings acts as a gateway to stimulate and reach individuals who are otherwise unreachable.

Overcoming Isolation and Finding Joy

Another resident, Billy, who had been unresponsive for two years, starts responding to music by moving her feet and head.
The healthcare system prioritizes medication over personalized care.
Personalized music is not considered a medical intervention, unlike prescription drugs.

The Healthcare System vs. the Human Connection

The healthcare system treats patients like machines, adjusting dials like blood pressure and blood sugar with medication, but fails to address their emotional and spiritual needs.
Gil, a strong nursing home resident with anger issues, needs quick and effective ways to manage his agitation.
Highly sedating medications can take away their ability to communicate their problems and can cause them to withdraw and disconnect from the world.
People lose their freedom and the ability to make choices in institutional environments.
Music brings spontaneity and allows individuals to create their own world on their own terms.

The Power of Music and Engagement

There is no pill that can replicate the effects of music to engage and help someone succeed in their surroundings.
Denise, a bipolar schizophrenic, demonstrates extreme raw emotions.
Music allows Denise to push away her walker and experience joy through dance.
The joy evoked by music is surprising when considering the person's isolation.
Residents in nursing homes experience loss of independence, dignity, and loved ones.

Seeking an Exit

Residents with dementia often try to escape or constantly ask how to get out of the facility.
They feel as though they are in an unfamiliar and undesirable world with few choices, little hope, and no control over their medications.
People withdraw inward as a coping mechanism, but after a while, they become like the living dead.

Music as a Healing Force

Everyone has music within them which can be accessed even after the trauma caused by disease or war.
Music can help people find their song which may have been covered up with pain.
Music has the power to heal trauma and enable people to be happy again.
Individuals can express themselves through music and share amazing stories.

Personal Experiences with Music

An individual details the loss of music when entering a nursing facility, causing a sense of solitary confinement.
Music provides stimulation, communication and prevents people from withdrawing inwards.
After eight years in the institution, they had the chance to get their music back.
Music can evoke deep emotions and transport people to another realm for a moment.

The Science Behind Music's Impact

At 22 days, a single cell jolts to life to create the first heartbeat in perfect unity, and then divides and becomes one's heart.
At six months of development, the cerebral cortex is capable of supporting thought.
Newborns' cries have patterns that reflect their mother's speech, indicating that we learn to sing with each other before birth.
Children keep time to music heard, or imagined.
Music is as quintessentially human as language.
The response to a beat may be hardwired in humans.
A physician discusses how music allows individuals to come alive providing a thrill, which lead them to ask.
- Why we fed and watered them, but didn't respond to deeper human needs.

How Nursing Homes Evolved

A century ago, they were called nurse nurseries, which were in a homelike setting, however, the advancement of our civilization made us create hospital based nursing homes.
Safety, no longer tied to the home or the village, became tied to something else.
By the late 1800s, elders in alarming numbers were ending their days in the poorhouse alongside the insane and the homeless.
The Social Security measure gave protection for 30 million citizens through old age pensions, and there was a decision to support them not through the welfare system, but through the healthcare system.
Medicaid Act of 1965 caused the business to explode.

Challenges and Criticisms of Nursing Homes

Warehousing elders and overusing physical restraints were replaced by the overuse of antipsychotic drugs.
Despite some of the best people working at Nursing homes that have great spirits, they work at facilities that define people as disabilities, diagnosing them as patients first, and humans second.
The goal is to learn John's story to help find the music that would help him.

Finding John's Music

John played baseball and served at Los al, where he fell ill. Post war: Performed in Philadelphia under the stage name Larry Stewart.
Music enabled John to sing after years of silence and awaken feelings he hadn't felt in years.

Support and Funding for Music Programs

Half the people in nursing homes get no visitors.
The nursing homes don't have a ready budget for this and the government does not reimburse for music and iPods.
The ultimate goal is to make this standard of care in all 16,000 nursing homes in this country.
Corporate philanthropy policy is no help.

Overcoming Barriers to Change

Bringing plants, animals and children into the lives of elders showed the effects it had on them.
Because it is outside of conventional practice, it is difficult to implement these changes.

A Movement for Change

Changes need to be made because the current system is not working and it's dehumanizing.
Baby boomers are saying this is not acceptable and this is not how they want to be treated when they get older.

The Geriatric Care Crisis

The United States of America only has 6,000 geriatricians in a nation of 300 million people.
This number is not going up and is in unfortunate timing. We are facing an epidemic of neurologic diseases on a global scale.
Every country that's colored blue has more than 20\% of its population over the age of 65.
For 12,000 years, the distribution of ages in the human population has looked like a pyramid with the oldest on top, and by 2050 it is going to be a column and will start to invert.
Over the age of 65, the risk of getting Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease will increase exponentially.
There are 5 million Alzheimer's patients in the United States.
In the next 10 years, that number will come close to doubling.
There are not enough facilities or resources to cope with that number of people suffering from dementia, so it is urgent to find a way to help them age in place in a healthy manner.

The Challenges of Aging and Dementia

The realities of aging lead to being dependent on someone else for everything one does.
It can be hard to manage life, but surprisingly, even deep inside Alzheimer's, the capacity for love and affection remains strong.

Mary Lou and the Power of Music

Music can help Mary Lou stay with her family longer.
Norma has cared for N at home for 10 years without drugs.
Without personalized music, N would be in an institution.
Music therapy is most effective.

The importance of Connection and Purpose

It is painful to feel that what one has to give is not needed, that there's no one there to receive one's gifts.

The Value of Elderhood

In all past times, cultures, and old stories, elderhood had something to give, and there was always someone there who needed what elders had to give, but it is not like that now.
American culture is wrong to teach that adulthood is the pinnacle of existence, older people are just broken down versions of their formal selves and that values individuals who are able to emulate the success of machines.
Moving into a different way of living causes America to put them away, to hide them away.

The Importance of Spirit and Connection

There is life beyond adulthood with opportunity to live, grow and become elders.
People are made to age, and the aging that is experienced holds in it important learnings and lessons.
Locking this touch away is like stripping from ourselves part of being human.
When the music comes, the spirit is what we see that comes out, and the spirit is still fresh and young.

Breaking Through with Music

One has to completely open themselves up, give of themselves, and then it opens up a dialogue.
Dan received a grant to give matching funds to 35 nursing homes in Colorado, which enabled them to change more lives, with more music.

The Viral Impact

A video was posted onto reddit.com. People saw a human being come alive, and when any of us come alive, it touches us deeply.
It is important to involve the community, donate IPods, and have students come into the nursing homes to work with the residents to find their playlist.
One is never too old to have something to give, and all that is needed is to ask what their favorite song is.

The Profound Impact of Music

Music awakens the most profound safety, the safety of living in concert with each other and our own selves.
Music feels good and brings people together.
By bringing life into the places where it's been forgotten, together we will listen.