The typical millennial is often attributed as individual who doesn’t really give a rat’s ass about the world around them while buried within their headphones and consumed by angry music about the world. But music is more than just an escape portal for the rebel.
For centuries, music has been a universal language to express love, passion, anger and etc. Music is often a benchmark for memories and important events and many of us couldn’t imagine our lives without it. However, as trivial as music may seem in one’s life, it tends to have more of an impact than you may think.
In 2016 alone, 5.3 million Americans suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. For those of you who may not know, “Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior”.
They start to confuse their living environment and soon enough, their loved ones. Due to the progressive and incurable nature of the disease, the patient is often at a loss when it comes to improving their state of mind.
Dan Cohen, the mastermind behind Music and Memory, has pioneered an effort to use music as a means to help individuals with memory problems reclaim some of their personality. Cohen achieves this by creating personalized playlists for each individual patient.
The results of his trials have been absolutely awe-inspiring.
At this point you may be wondering about the connection between music and Alzheimer’s. According to the writers at Music and Memory, “These musical favorites tap deep memories not lost to dementia and can bring participants back to life, enabling them to feel like themselves again, to converse, socialize and stay present”.
Recently the internet discovered one of Cohen’s most successful patient, Henry. Henry is a dementia patient who has been suffering for year’s and barely said a word to a single human being. All of this changed when Cohen introduced the Music and Memory program to Henry’s nursing home.
Henry isn’t the only individual who has been significantly impacted by Cohen’s work. In fact, when Cohen started out none of the 16,000 nursing homes in the U.S. had any type of music program for the residents. After the initiation of his program, Cohen has been able to reach hundreds of residents and make a massive impact on resident with memory loss.
