A new music program at Rosedale Home for Special Care is helping dementia patients feel safe again.
Studies show music can take alzheimers and dementia patients back to a time of security and safety.
That’s what Corinna Brown, a continuing care assistant at Rosedale, is hoping to do.
Brown says she constantly hears patients asking to go home.
She says finding music they used to love, when they were in a better state of mind, helps take them back there.
“It encourages them to communicate more, it settles their fears that they’re going through; they can’t always tell us what has them agitated and upset,” she says.
“So, if it’s something as simple as having a little bit of music take them back there, sometimes that can change the entire direction of their day.”
The program is in developmental stages, and seeking public help with donations.
Brown says they’re looking for anything from money and phones to radios and iTunes cards.
But Rosedale doesn’t want to have to re-allocate important funds from other areas of the home.
Corinna Brown, a continuing care assistant at Rosedale, says they’re looking for anything from monetary donations to cds, ipods and iTunes cards.
She says one woman was able to re-connect with her husband after his stroke.
“It’s just absolutely beautiful – and all she keeps saying is [that] putting a cd player in that room has changed everything for him,”
“And it seems so simple for us, but it’s not for them. It’s a really big deal.”
Brown says Several businesses in the area have already donated phones and 10 cd-players to the home.
