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This is a great idea!


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Thanks, Macster,

I've been thwarted at every turn. Everyone sees it as a worthwhile project then instantly puts it on the back burner.

My niece in Seattle who owns a popular karaoke bar only managed to get 5 iPods and small cash pledges.

The owners of Street Jelly promised to take it on as humanitarian gesture but I've grown tired of using a bull prod to get anyone to follow through. Very disheartening.

Again, thanks for the "bump".

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As far as i can see a bull prod sound very scary to me! would make me moo and run really fast!


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Mac,

Don has been working on this for quite awhile - just about a year, when I brought up the music and memory folks in the music and dementia thread.

On my suggestion, the February Album Writing Month group at www.fawm.org chose the music and memory organization for the extra funds raised during the yearly FAWM campaign.

We were able to raise $800 which paid for 16 iPod shuffles for the music and memory organization to donate. Not a huge pile, but more than none!

Thank you for mentioning it again. It seems like a great organization.

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Scott,

Please don't think me unappreciative. Although you've made a huge difference in the overall scheme of things, it doesn't help the patients that I love and see suffering the ravages of Dementia and Alzheimer's here in my nursing home. It goes to the MM central fund which may never reach this facility.

Add the fact that the Corporate office, representing 14 sister homes, shows no interest in bringing the joys of music to our patients and you will understand my frustration. I can't do it alone.

Thanks so much, Scott and Mac.

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Originally Posted By: rockstar_not
Mac,

Don has been working on this for quite awhile - just about a year, when I brought up the music and memory folks in the music and dementia thread.



Have to wonder why you think you would have to tell me that...


I've been here the whole time, eh?


That is why my Header mentions Don will love this.


I've been on the case as well, but my methodology has been to drop a bug into the ears of certain people I know who are likely to influence movers and shakers in the field, globally. When they publish, and some already have, others will read.


--Mac

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Don,

I'm upset to hear that the music and memory organization is not able to help you out locally. If I read your post correctly, the management of your local chain of nursing homes is in the way.

I would like to learn more about the local block/inaction if you think there's any potential future merit for telling me about it - maybe best in a PM, where I can send you my e-mail. If it's happening for you and the people you know as well as at a group of other facilities, it's probably not isolated to just your chain's ownership/management.

Mac, I didn't know if you were aware of the effort that had been going on with the highlighted organization in the news clip. That is all. My thanks in my post still applies.

-Scott

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Originally Posted By: rockstar_not
Don,

I'm upset to hear that the music and memory organization is not able to help you out locally. If I read your post correctly, the management of your local chain of nursing homes is in the way.

I would like to learn more about the local block/inaction if you think there's any potential future merit for telling me about it - maybe best in a PM, where I can send you my e-mail. If it's happening for you and the people you know as well as at a group of other facilities, it's probably not isolated to just your chain's ownership/management.

Mac, I didn't know if you were aware of the effort that had been going on with the highlighted organization in the news clip. That is all. My thanks in my post still applies.

-Scott

They apparently see it as an obligation for staff and other resources.

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Forcing already overworked staff that is likely also spread kinda thin in these economically challenged times doesn't look to me to be the better way to go about handling this issue.

On the other hand, rallying doctors, physicians, psychologists, academics and officials by way of educational campaigning may seem to take a bit longer, but should also prove to be both more permanent and more far reaching over the long haul.

That is actually why I started this thread, the news story cited is just one example and there will likely be more of same to follow. And that's a Good Thing.


--Mac

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Mac, I have no means of accomplishing that. The Oklahoma Heath Department Ombudsman has proved impotent.

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Originally Posted By: Don Gaynor
Mac, I have no means of accomplishing that. The Oklahoma Heath Department Ombudsman has proved impotent.


There are those of us doing what we can for you, Don.


--Mac

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Originally Posted By: Mac
Forcing already overworked staff that is likely also spread kinda thin in these economically challenged times doesn't look to me to be the better way to go about handling this issue.

On the other hand, rallying doctors, physicians, psychologists, academics and officials by way of educational campaigning may seem to take a bit longer, but should also prove to be both more permanent and more far reaching over the long haul.

That is actually why I started this thread, the news story cited is just one example and there will likely be more of same to follow. And that's a Good Thing.


--Mac


Agreed.

To potentially fan the flame some more, here is the original 'Henry' video on YouTube; 1.3 million+ views so far (I'm responsible for about 10 of them - I can watch it now without crying, not so the first time.)
http://youtu.be/fyZQf0p73QM

There are better videos from music and memory, but this one has the inertia of being viral in the first place and the heavy view count.

Spread the word.

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By far the most rewarding and gratifying experience that I've had with music and the elderly was with Patricia (last name withheld), an 80 year old former concert pianist. She was catatonic and could only blink her eyes voluntarily. My first priority was to teach her eye blink communications. Something the SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) hadn't even thought of. Now, after years trapped in a broken body. Her entire being came alert and very much alive when she realized that she could communicate, however primitively, with staff and I.

I have Pandora on my Dynavox and she now could tell me what she wanted to her. I know that her final months were happier with music. The reward? I had made a wonderful lady's last days more pleasant. Her Dr. said that my music may have prolonged Pat's life.

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Originally Posted By: Don Gaynor
By far the most rewarding and gratifying experience that I've had with music and the elderly was with Patricia (last name withheld), an 80 year old former concert pianist. She was catatonic and could only blink her eyes voluntarily. My first priority was to teach her eye blink communications. Something the SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) hadn't even thought of. Now, after years trapped in a broken body. Her entire being came alert and very much alive when she realized that she could communicate, however primitively, with staff and I.

I have Pandora on my Dynavox and she now could tell me what she wanted to her. I know that her final months were happier with music. The reward? I had made a wonderful lady's last days more pleasant. Her Dr. said that my music may have prolonged Pat's life.


Way to go, Don! One of the reasons I took the Jazz Improv class was to help my ear hear standard song chord structure/melody development with more sensitivity and to get my hands to follow suit. I can't say that I've made great strides, but I can detect more classic harmony development now just a little bit better. End result, I hope, is that I can do a better job showing up with a fake book of classic songs at elder care facilities and do a decent rendition of these songs. (I have a few volumes of those Readers Digest songbooks that I got from my deceased grandmother's stash - she had Alzheimer's the last couple years of her life and singing hymns with her was one of the only things to pull out her true personality). I tried playing these at home, and some of the chordal movement was so foreign to my hands and brain, I didn't feel comfortable at all in going in to 'be of service'. I also didn't fulfill a vow I made here about this time last year, that I would try to get to an elder care facility in 2013 to play some of these songs. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, but I hope to do this in 2014. Music therapy probably has much more behind it than we can ever imagine. Music moves us in inexplicable ways, why should that stop completely when some of our neurological function gets jumbled? A movie to get on Netflix that I can recommend which is partially related to this topic is: Young@Heart - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1047007/ Not related to Alzheimer's but absolutely related to music as a reason for living.

Last edited by rockstar_not; 01/02/14 04:18 PM.
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