Music to enrich lives, revive memories

By John Howell
Posted 3/2/17

By JOHN HOWELL Music is known to be calming, but can it also open a door to memories and skills, such as talking, that have been robbed by dementia and Alzheimer's? Dottie Santagata, director of Cornerstone Memory Care Center on Warwick Neck and the

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Music to enrich lives, revive memories

Posted

Music is known to be calming, but can it also open a door to memories and skills, such as talking, that have been robbed by dementia and Alzheimer’s?

Dottie Santagata, director of Cornerstone Memory Care Center on Warwick Neck and the Apponaug Center, has seen how music can help people whose memories are impaired find new paths to regain some of what they have lost and, most importantly, improve their quality of life.

She told her story Thursday at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Warwick, where she was awarded a $1,925 grant to develop a musical therapy program at Cornerstone. She spoke of a guest in her mid-80s who has lost the ability to speak. The woman frequently becomes agitated, uttering guttural sounds and disrupting daily activities at the center. When this happened the practice was to relocate the woman, who is confined to a wheelchair, to a quiet environment on the premise that commotion heightened her anxiety.

Reassuring the woman that everything was all right had no effect, and as Santagata observed, removing her from the activity really didn’t help either.

“We were trying to get her quiet,” Santagata said.

Yet Santagata believed the woman was engaged. Santagata realized the woman was watching her and seemed to be following what was happening around her. She was alert and responsive, but she was at a loss in communicating.

Santagata took a new approach when the woman blurted out unintelligible sounds. She bent down and asked if she likes to sing. She didn’t expect an answer and she didn’t get one. Rather, Santagata starting singing “God Bless America.” Santagata was amazed. She could see the woman mouthing the words and then, to her amazement, she was singing them.

They were the first comprehensible words the woman had said at Cornerstone. It didn’t mean the woman had suddenly regained the ability to speak. But the music had unlocked a door to memories. Santagata sang other songs such as “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”

“She says all the words,” said Santagata.

Santagata wondered if music might release other abilities. The woman was lifted from her wheelchair and seated in a chair where she had a greater range of movement. The woman started tapping her foot in time with the music. Santagata now wonders if the woman and other guests with similar symptoms could be introduced to exercises and other activities with the aid of music.

Cornerstone already uses art as a means of engaging clients with the program Opening Minds Through Arts. A teacher assisted by students from the New England Institute of Technology works with guests to paint and release their creativity. Santagata questions how music might affect those paintings. Would, for example, clients paint more bold and colorful paintings if they were listening to strident patriotic music?

In her grant request, Santagata points out the goal at Cornerstone “is to help seniors stray at their highest level of functioning far as long as possible to promote quality of life at all levels.” Conditions related to Parkinson’s disease, stroke, osteoarthritis and other chronic conditions include inability to recall, weakness, stiffness, pain-reduced ability to move and participate in activities and depression. Santagata said music is used in many healthcare settings as a therapy and that the Older Americans Act “considers music therapy a preventive health service that is beneficial to the older adult looking for an opportunity to exercise his/her mind and maintain his/her abilities to the fullest extent through group-based music experiences.”

Santagata will use the Rotary grant to introduce a new program, Engaging Seniors Through Music. The money will be used to retain a music therapist to work with participants and train the Cornerstone staff. Outcomes are to be measured by the numbers of seniors participating and changes in mood, behavior, cognition, physical abilities and emotional changes.

“Our goal is to help people have a wonderful quality of life regardless of their disability,” said Santagata.

As for the woman who helped initiate a serious look at music therapy, Santagata said she sings and she has regained a few words.

“The spouse can’t believe she’s able to participate,” Santagata said. “We have been trying to find a way to reach her, and we have.”

And there’s an added benefit to music, she says.

“You can’t yell and sing at the same time. It makes you happy.”

The Rotary Club also grants to the following organizations: $1,000 to the RI Academic Decathlon; $2,000 to the Warwick Boys and Girls Club; $1,800 to the Women in Need program at Kent Hospital; $375 to the Literacy Volunteers of Kent County; $1,373.50 to The Kent Center; $1,500 to the Warwick Center for the Arts and $1,600 to the Elizabeth Buffum Chace Center.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here