You may have heard about the amazing effects music can have on people suffering from memory loss/dementia. When music is played from a significant time in their lives it can help in stimulating their memories and can ‘bring them back’ even if just briefly.
We have witnessed this time and time again in our Intergenerational Musical Sessions. Residents of the Aged Care Homes who are no longer verbal, will start to sing. Some who have ceased participating in activities will start to dance. People who have all but given up and suffering from bouts of depression will start to smile and laugh when they see the children and hear the music.
I had yet another beautiful and moving moment today.
We were at a home with residents sitting around the room in chairs and wheelchairs interacting with the visiting parents with their children who were sitting on mats on the floor.
The staff had also brought in a few advanced memory support Residents who were lying in beds as unable to walk or even sit, and were placed at the back of the room. I smiled and said hello to them as I wandered around the room but got very little response from them and was unsure they were even aware of our presence.
The session started and as we all sang and danced I occasionally looked over at the four at the back laying on their beds but they appeared to be dozing, oblivious to what was happening at the front of the room.
When it came time to hand out the percussion instruments to everyone, I also offered them to those at the back, not expecting them to be able to hold them, but wanted to try to include them in some way. I was pleasantly surprised when one of the gentlemen grasped the maraca I offered to him and held it in front of him.
I watched him as I sang from the front of the room encouraging everyone to sing and play their musical instruments along with me, and to my delight he was holding his maraca up high and shaking it, with his face animated with joy. As the session continued I could see that he was now singing along with us as well. I made my way around the room and when I approached him he made eye contact with me and excitedly told me that he was a drummer and for 50 years had played at theatres all over the world for some of the biggest shows out of Broadway. I went and grabbed a pair of rhythm sticks from my music bag and handed them to him and he excitedly started playing along with those.
As we finished the session with ‘Bye Bye Blackbird ‘ Laurie sang along loudly from the back of the room and when he was wheeled out to be taken to lunch by one of the staff members he was telling her that he was a drummer and of the shows he had played for. She looked surprised so don’t think she had been aware of his past before either. I promised him that when I returned for our next visit I would bring some bongo drums with me for him to play. He asked excitedly if I could also bring a pair of brush sticks for him to use on them which I will do.
Looking forward to going back there.
This article was written by our Intergenerational Operations Manager – Sonja Olsen and was originally published in hey dee ho’s Victorian Intergenerational Music Facebook group.