Leeneia

I used to work as a music therapist in a hospital situation. I worked in the extended care, intermediate care and palliative care programs of the hospital. Every day that I worked in the intermediate care facility (4 1/2 days/week) I would spend 45-60 minutes in the special care unit, these are the alzheimers patients. We had the most fun there... I would do singalongs, play instruments, dancing etc... they would sit in a circle around me (on a rolling stool) while I played guitar and conversed with them.... we would joke (most of it nonsense) carryon absurd conversations (because of the nature of the disease) and sing. They would sing with me, remembering most of the words of the songs, some of them even requesting songs..... I took a three month leave of absense, came back, first day one of the ladies asked for "that german song we sing" (du ligst mir im herzen). she hadn't sung it for three months... another time, sang 'Redwing' with an added verse about charlie chaplin, one fellow, big grin told us at the end 'I remember learning that when I was 5!' True or not, didn't matter, every time we sang that song I would get a big grin out of him..... The song "Around her neck she wore a yellow ribbon' has a great group shout 'Faraway!', which we heard one time from one of the rooms down the hall!!!

An article I once read about music therapy in the Alzheimer's ward states that persons with Alzheimer's disease "have not lost their memories nor their former personalities. They have lost access to them." "Thus with music, - and here, above all, it must be the 'right' music, the music which holds significance for the individual - the demented patient can recall, re-access, not only his powers of speech, his perceptual and thinking skills, but his entire emotional and intellectual configuration, his life history, his identity - 'for awhile'" (Dr. Oliver Sacks)

They will seek out the music to be involved, participate in ways totally unexpected but so natural. The best part of working with these patients is watching the staff..... they come to see their patients in a different light as they see a side of them they may not have seen before....

enjoy them, they are alot of fun...

musicman