Let’s talk about Alzheimer’s/related dementia and music therapy this week.
You know when you haven’t heard a song in many years but despite this, when it starts playing you suddenly know most, if not all of the words? That’s what music does for individuals with dementia as well. Did you know that music is one of the very few things that activates and uses both sides of the brain at once? For individuals with dementia/Alzheimer’s, brain cells begin to degenerate and brain functioning is impacted. Since music uses both sides of the brain, all areas of brain tissue are activated. This allows the entirety of the brain to be used, reaching any functioning regions that the individual still has. Now, music therapy cannot improve the brain’s abilities, as dementia causes death of neurons and tissues in the brain. However, it helps to maximize the usage and can be used to help maintain what skills are still there for as long as possible. What are some goals that the music therapists work towards to help these individuals? Unfortunately, dementia is a progressive disease, meaning that no matter what you do, you cannot stop it from happening or take medicine to make it better. As this is the case, music therapy’s primary purpose for these individuals is to improve their quality of life to its maximum potential. Music therapists can help clients with: mood elevation, decreasing agitation and anxiety, increasing alertness levels, decreasing feelings of isolation, helping to orient the patient back to the current reality, promote relaxation, and help pain management and decreasing the feeling of pain. On top of all of those, music therapy also provides the individual with an additional opportunity for stimulation. Stimulation for individuals with Alzheimer’s/dementia is a very important part of the therapy session. Whether tactile, vibrotactile, or auditory, additional stimulation provides further interpersonal engagement between the therapist and the client, as it helps to capture and attract the client’s attention to the session. Now, why does this require a music therapist? Why can’t little Suzie down the road come and sing with her guitar with them, wouldn’t it be the same? Unfortunately for Suzie, no it is not. As a board-certified music therapist, we have learned what stimulation is most effective for which diagnoses, how to notice and adjust for overstimulation in the client, what instruments are most effective for the scenario the session is in, and more. To make a long story short: music therapy is immensely successful with individuals who have Alzheimer’s/dementia. The music unlocks the client from their own mind, and even if it just for five minutes or an hour, it’s worth it.
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