Photo: Still
A music and memory programme based in Chicago that introduces families caring for a loved one with memory loss to the healing qualities of music on the brain, is having a life changing benefit for families.
A recent report in The Daily Progress highlights the impact. It tells the story of a 65-year-old man from Darien, IL, named Alan Pasquesi who has primary progressive aphasia, a condition that over 12 years has taken away his ability to speak or understand language.
We learn from an interview with his wife and full-time carer, Debbie Pasquesi, that when music is played his eyes gain some sparkle and he smiles ever so slightly where otherwise he would have a vacant look.
She praises the transformative effect it has and says it’s helped her husband Alan’s ability to take part in simple things like spending time with their kids and grandkids. "He would have been crazed there and he couldn't have handled all the stimuli. We brought him his earphones, and he was fine. He was very relaxed."
Cathy Johnston, who works as one Metropolitan Family Service’s In-Home Senior Respite volunteers, introduced the family to the therapy in October.
"It's music you're familiar with, that you loved. It is your type of music, not just any music," Johnston said. "It has a definite effect. There is a calming there and it does help the patients focus. With the music they are more focused on everything they're doing, rather than not knowing where to focus."
Johnston witnessed that with Pasquesi listening to a playlist of music he loved - mostly 70s and 80s rock - his behaviour changed so much. Johston said that due to his condition personality had become revolved around his basic needs - sleeping, bathing and eating. He was particularly fixated on food and devoured it in minutes.
But when Johnston put his headphones on for the first time, the change was immediate. He had a leisurely, 40-minute lunch, he was calmer, comforted.
Scientifically, the benefits of music therapy for patients with memory loss are well known. But it’s down to work like colunteer Cathy Johnston that the scientific discoveries are put into practice and not just kept in small circles of people who are lucky enough to be informed.
The credentials of this programme are backed up by Dan Cohen founder and executive director of the New York-based non-profit Music and Memory. “Music is a "back door" to the parts of the brain that are still working, said Dan Cohen, "Our love of music is really connected with our emotional system, which is still intact no matter how advanced someone's dementia is," he said.
