Blossom Grove Support Group
I spoke at a family/caregiver support group last week at Blossom Grove in Redlands, CA. It was an honor to sit with family members and friends of loved ones experiencing the difficult journey of Alzheimer’s and/or Dementia. If any of you who attended are reading this, I sincerely thank you for opening up and sharing your ideas, suggestions, difficulties, and joys as you walk through this difficult journey. I hope our time was beneficial and that it provided hope and resources to keep you encouraged!
I shared with the group how I use music therapy to increase interpersonal interaction and decrease isolation, provide sensory stimulation, increase emotional and creative expression, facilitate memory recall and life review, and decrease anxiety/agitation/depression in their loved one who has Alzheimer’s or another form of Dementia. I do music therapy in a group setting or 1-on-1 with patients and their families/caregivers. It is especially effective to work individually with patients who have Dementia because I am able to adapt each session to their unique needs and goals.
Music Therapy goals include: Interpersonal Interaction, Sensory Stimulation, Emotional & Creative Expression, Life Review
Whether it is group or individual music therapy, I implement a variety of interventions: playing percussion instruments, singing familiar songs together, songwriting (according to appropriate cognitive ability), and legacy work (audio or video recordings). Upon sharing the various ways that I interact with patients and their families, those who were at the support group asked questions and even provided additional ideas of how they can practically incorporate music into their loved one’s life. I loved the idea of one person who asked about legacy recordings: “Do you record a patient to give to the family, or do you use it to play it back to her/him in a music therapy session?” I loved that question because the answer is yes to both parts of it! Recordings of singing and/or speaking is something you and future generations will treasure. This is something that you can do on your own, but it is also meaningful when a music therapist has been working with your loved one and can capture those special moments in sessions with audio and/or video devices.
The conclusion that we came to at the end of our time together was that there are endless ways to use music to interact and connect with your loved one. If something doesn’t work, try something else. Don’t wait to “be good enough” to play or sing with your loved one. None of us know how much time we have left with our family and friends - let’s make the most of it!
Thank you, Mechelle, for inviting me to speak this month! It was an honor and a pleasure to connect and share ideas of how music can help us connect with the ones we love.
“It is especially effective to work individually with patients who have Dementia because I am able to adapt each session to their unique needs and goals.”