Create a Music Playlist for Your Loved One With Dementia
Watching a loved one die of dementia can be a terrifying, isolating, and hopeless experience. But even when a patient loses cognitive functions – thinking, memorizing, and reasoning – he can remain connected to his love of music.
Reddit user u / sportznut1000 says his wife works in a hospice and has taken a course on best practices for treating dementia patients:
She shared with me what I remember: patients with dementia who received an mp3 player with personal music (and headphones so as not to be distracted) [immersed] in music and could even use it for a few minutes to recall a happy moment in their life associated with this song. I believe that the part of the brain that stores music is one of the strongest susceptible to dementia.
You can imagine what it might look like, but it’s incredible to see it in action. Watch this video from Music & Memory :
There is a push right now to make music more accessible to dementia patients through campaigns such as UK’s Music for Dementia 2020 , which aims to make music available to everyone with dementia by next year.
To create your own playlist, the Music for Dementia website has a few tips to help you get started :
A personalized playlist can be a source of comfort and pleasure for individuals and helps ensure that listening to music is human-centered. When we think of making playlists for people living with dementia, the evidence suggests that music has a memory bump. People living with dementia seem to retain the clearest memories of the music they loved and heard around the age of 10 to 30.
The more personalized the list, the better, so look for clues as to which specific songs or type of music will resonate with the recipient the most. You may already have some ideas, but you can also ask other family members, look through old photos to see if they’ve been to any of their favorite concerts, or look through their personal recordings or CD collection.
Music for Dementia recommends sitting with your loved one while he is listening to music, especially for the first time, and carefully monitoring his reactions.
This can include opening or moving the eyes, tapping fingers or toes, or changing facial expressions. They may become more alert or speak. They may become more relaxed or more responsive. Add any song the person responds to to the playlist.
Watch out for the red flag songs – the music is strong. He can transport people to another time or to another place. This is a great gift, but you don’t want to take someone away to a bad place. Tears are not always negative, but if someone becomes very agitated or upset in response to a particular song, you should stop the session and discard that music. Remember to record songs with a red flag so they won’t be played again.
Reddit user u / AdorableLime , who says he is a professional caregiver for the elderly, agrees on the benefits of music for dementia patients.
“Surprisingly, most of my patients never forgot their favorite songs when they were younger, and they even sang them along with the music,” says u / AdorableLime. “This is one of the best ways to stimulate their desire to live and to encourage them to have fun away from the daily stress of forgetting who you are and where you are.”