Entertaining dementia patients

Subject: RE: Entertaining dementia patients
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 04 Feb 12 - 01:36 PM

Eliza, It's very disappointing & upsetting to hear that staff don't have the consideration to try to (at the very least) listen to something that won't make the residents uncomfortable/unhappy.

Worse, I suspect that is far from being a one-off...

Subject: RE: Entertaining dementia patients
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 04 Feb 12 - 02:41 PM

Well, I know it's a difficult and demanding job at times, being a carer in an old folks' home, and the young people who do so must find the pop music keeps their spirits up. But it's different for the residents, they deserve to hear music they generally like and know, and not at a volume enough to waken the dead!

Subject: RE: Entertaining dementia patients
From: Flash Company
Date: 05 Feb 12 - 10:45 AM

Hi Northerner, as a fellow northerner here is someone who appears to have some experience of assisting Alzheimers sufferers and helpers musically. An outfit called 'The Music Place' contact [e-mail], run a choir for such. Choir is organised by Clare Morrell at The Cinnamon Club in Bowdon. Clare is a nice lady and can probably give you quite a few tips on what has been well received.

FC

Subject: RE: Entertaining dementia patients
From: Northerner
Date: 06 Feb 12 - 09:41 AM

Thank you all for your comments. I'll certainly think now to ask the staff beforehand if there are any birthdays coming up.

Subject: RE: Entertaining dementia patients
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Feb 12 - 12:25 PM

"the young people who do so must find the pop music keeps their spirits up"

It's kind of you to think so Eliza, but always when I comment to a worker that the music is bothersome, the reply is "Oh, I don't even hear it!" And I believe them. Waiters, managers, etc are so busy and distracted that the music doesn't even register on their consciousness. I'm sure it applies to caregivers too.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting at a table and can hardly hear my husband talking to me.

Subject: RE: Entertaining dementia patients
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 06 Feb 12 - 12:59 PM

I think I'm a bit over-sensitive to noise, especially noisy music in restaurants and cafes etc. It makes me twitch. My husband has fallen in love with MacDonald's, so we go about once a month for him to indulge. But they play the most ghastly music at full belt, and there are always dozens of badly-behaved children galloping about shrieking. He munches through his quarterpounder thing, I just have a horrid paper cup of hot tea and grit my teeth!

Subject: RE: Entertaining dementia patients
From: Genie
Date: 18 Feb 12 - 10:54 PM

S.A., I really do understand and empathize with your musical tastes and aversions. But when a nursing home or other sort of facility hires someone for music as entertainment and/or as therapy, they are focusing on the residents as a group. It's seldom possible to please everyone equally.

In my work in rehab centers, small group homes, nursing homes, memory care facilities, and even assisted and independent living communities, it's not all that unusual to find some resident who requests something such as "The Blue Danube Waltz," "The William Tell Overture," "big band music," or even "Stevie Ray Vaughn."   I.e., sometimes people request songs that not only aren't in my repertoire but are such that I couldn't possibly approximate the sound(s) they're looking for if it tried.   
It's absurd to expect every musician who comes in to play and/or sing to be all things to all people. Your task is to find that intersection of what you do well and what most, or at least many, of the residents will respond to.

Subject: RE: Entertaining dementia patients
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Sep 15 - 06:01 PM

I do oldies and I like to tell little stories about the songs. Who was the original artist, what year it came out. Odd facts about stuff like that. They like that kind of stuff rather than just playing one song after another. After all, you are "in Concert" in this type of venue. It isn't a dance or a bar scene. People are just sitting there and listening to you. I kind of like that.