Music is an important part of our everyday lives. From listening to a favourite song on your way to work, to singing holiday songs with friends and family, music can lift your spirits and calm your soul. So it is no wonder that it has been used for decades to manage pain and help patients to recover from strokes. Most recently it is becoming a valuable tool for helping people who have severe memory loss. Multiple parts of the brain are engaged when people listen to music, including the areas associated with emotions, memory, learning and perception. The latest research is showing that the parts of the brain which contain musical memories are the least affected by dementia. 

This explains why memories that are linked to a person’s favourite music are often retained by many dementia patients. “Music is arousing the parts of the brain that are either deteriorating slower or are still healthy.” Special forms of music therapy are being designed with old songs that stir memories of people, places and events. It is unlikely that this can stop the cognitive decline of late-stage dementia, but it can be of great help in making the situation more bearable. “Music therapy – when used with other management techniques – can provide a valuable way to offer connections and meaning in the lives of patients and their loved ones.”

I did not know any of this years ago when I went to New York to be with my mother whose mental health was rapidly deteriorating. Mom had been her usual sharp and aware self when I had last seen her just a few years before, but now she barely recognized me. I brought with me a bunch of Frank Sinatra CDs because she had been a big fan of his as a teenager. We went for a drive and I started to sing along with Frank on “You Make Me Feel So Young”. Right away Mom joined in, singing every word perfectly. If at that moment I had asked her to name her four children I don’t think she could have done it. But singing old songs was a completely different matter. For ten days we sang song after song together - walking the beach, in the car or wherever. It was heart-breaking; and it was marvellous! A gift I will always treasure.