Reaching those with Alzheimers and related dementias through music

Activities directors and other healthcare professionals here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,


Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care professionals to get an easyceu or two




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The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

Dr. Oliver Sacks, Professor of Clinical Neurology and Psychiatry at Columbia University, in his current bestselling book, Musicophilia, writes about the amazing therapeutic effects of music on people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. He states, "Music is no luxury to them but a necessity, and can have power beyond anything to restore them to themselves and to others at least for a while." In this eye-opening book he devotes a chapter to this subject entitled, "Music and Identity: Dementia and Music Therapy." For this population Dr. Sacks describes how familiar music is the key to eliciting emotions and unlocking words that have been silent.
Researchers have discovered that the teen years around the age of 14 are when musical preferences and memories are formed. Daniel Levitin in his book This is Your Brain on Music states, "We tend to remember things that have an emotional component because our amygdala and neurotransmitters act in concert to tag as important the memories of these emotionally charged years of self-discovery." Therefore, people with Alzheimer's disease can often sing the songs they heard during their teen years, even when they can no longer remember the names of their children. This behavior is also well documented in people with advanced dementia