Finding Memories in Music in Honor of Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month

Show Notes

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, a time to amplify the voices of patient advocates and leaders working to support people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. As we continue exploring innovative, person-centered approaches to care, we sat down with memory support experts Amy Hewes and Marianna Blagburn of Ingleside Engaged Living to discuss the unique role music can play in unlocking memories, fostering connection, and enhancing quality of life.

Episode Transcript

Matt:

Hello and welcome to This Is Growing Old, the podcast all about the common human experience of aging. My name is Matt and I’ll be your host today.

Music, the great communicator, as the Red Hot Chili Peppers once put it, has the power to transcend barriers and weave rhythm and melody into our lives. Whether you’re an infant drifting off to a favorite lullaby or a concert pianist composing a magnum opus, music connects with us on a fundamental human level. It’s no surprise, then, that some of our most cherished songs and sounds can also play a meaningful role in care. As we continue to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and amplify the voices of patients, advocates, caregivers, and experts, we’re excited to explore how music is transforming the way we approach neurodegenerative care.

Joining us today are Marianna Blagburn and Amy Hughes, directors of memory support and programming at Ingleside at Rock Creek and Westminster at Lake Ridge. Through its life-planned communities, home care services and foundation, Ingleside is committed to helping residents live engaged, fulfilling lives with access to a full continuum of care, including memory support. In addition to its in-person centered approach to aging services, Ingleside offers robust music therapy programming designed to support cognitive, emotional, and social wellbeing. We’re excited to learn more about the work and the power of music as we dive into the chat today. Amy, Marianna, thank you so much for joining us.

Marianna Blagburn:

Thank you for having us.

Matt:

So Amy, I’ll lob this to you first. Can you share a bit about your background? What drew you to music therapy and what inspires you to incorporate the arts into your therapeutic approach?

Amy Hewes:

Sure. So I grew up in a musical household and I was the kid that was in every choir program and band program that I could get myself into in school and outside of school, and then I ended up going to college for music. Very quickly learned I did not want to be a music educator, so there was a little bit of soul searching happening around that time. Meanwhile, my college job was at a retirement community in the dining room there and I just loved it so much. And there was one resident who every time he saw my name tag, he would start singing a song that had my name in it, Once in Love with Amy, and I just had such a good time with him. I actually had never heard about music therapy, but once I heard about it and connected the dots that I could use that and work with older adults, something sparked and I went to grad school for that and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Matt:

Oh, I love that. I love how there are so many ways that you can apply music to your life and career. There is not a single track to pursue music, which is amazing.

And Marianna, how about you? What brought you to this field and what inspires you to continue?

Marianna Blagburn:

Thank you for asking. Well, I grew up with grandparents, of course, on both sides and I had an aunt who was a musician and she went to people’s homes, she was a pianist, and she had various students come to her home. I was exposed to that at an early age. I was also always interested in being part of choral groups, singing in different chorus groups as a youngster in school. And then I remember reading The Washington Post in the fourth grade, we had assignments to read for articles, and I found an ad that said that the Vienna Choir Boys was coming. They were coming to Constitution Hall in Washington, DC and I begged for our class to go to the school principal and she said yes. And we went and it just became a lifelong pursuit of the love of music, all genres.

And when I became interested in memory programming for older adults undergoing neurocognitive change, I realized what an impact music would have on their health, and so I began incorporating it into our programming here at Ingleside.

Matt:

I love that. It seems like music has found you both rather than the other way around.

Research has shown that music can have a powerful impact on mental health. Can you talk about some of the benefits that you’ve seen?

Amy Hewes:

Yeah, this is something I see on a daily basis, which is wonderful. There is a correlation between neurocognitive change and a higher rate of mental illness like depression, especially, and music is a great way to support people who are depressed or struggling in any way. So I see that even just sharing a sing-along with residents, they leave smiling and happy and connected to each other. Prior to this point in my career, I was working with a lot of individuals and there was one gentleman who was in the skilled nursing area who was very isolated, he’d been there for years and he kept hoping that his wife would get off the train and pick him up and take him home, even though she had long passed away. And he just felt like he had to stay put in that room or else he was going to miss her. So even though he had that thought in his head, he was still grieving her loss and he was isolating, he was depressed.

So I started visiting him in his room and doing some music therapy with him and helped build a relationship with him. And after that point, I was one of the only people who could go into his room and invite him to come out to a program. So he started to come out to group music therapy programs, and then he started to come out for bingo and for meals. And there was a big change in his quality of life just from going from being so isolated to joining in the community events.

Matt:

Oh my gosh, that’s incredible. Marianna, have you seen any of the benefits in your experience?

Marianna Blagburn:

Yes. Well, yes, definitely every day it’s the highlight of our day. We incorporate music, singing, and just enjoying the listening of music every day in both our social day program and in our residential memory support program. We know that musical memories are often preserved in those suffering from neurological change in all of us. I recently learned, it’s been a couple years, but I recently learned that music really has no place to live in our brains except all throughout our brains. And so it can be accessed and that’s really important because we know that language words are not always available to those living with neurological change. So because it evokes memories and an emotional response, it can really improve the mood and help people feel connected and boost cognition. So we’re really happy to have such a vibrant musical program on all of our Ingleside campuses.

Matt:

Oh, for sure, absolutely. As we know, and as you’ve touched on a bit, music has a unique ability to unlock memories for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative conditions. What is it about music that makes it so effective in supporting cognitive health?

Amy Hewes:

I’ll piggyback off of what Marianna was saying. First, there’s two main reasons, and the first is the way that music is processed in the brain. So it’s processed on the left side, on the right side, it’s processed on the outer part, on the inner part, and the more you engage with the music, the more brain activity you’re going to see on any imaging things that people do with the research. So if you add in playing some instruments or add in singing rather than just listening, more and more of the brain will start to light up. And activating the brain is really beneficial to people with Alzheimer’s disease or other neurocognitive conditions. Getting those neurons to fire and communicate with each other will help preserve them longer and slow down the decline that happens with these diseases.

And then the second reason that it’s so effective is that it’s so social. So music is a part of our lives from before we’re born, we hear our mother’s voice, our father’s voice sometimes, singing or just speaking. We’re rhythmic. We have a heartbeat. As soon as we learn how to walk, we’re walking in rhythm, and music is tied just to being human and also to the identities that we form throughout our lives. So I’m sure all of us could think back to middle school and high school, going to the dances or other social events, the songs that were playing at those things. I know for me, when I hear them, they just take me back in time, and that doesn’t go away as the decades go on. So that’s one of the great things about music with older folks is that it can bring them back to happy memories from earlier in life just by hearing a familiar song.

Matt:

Yeah. I love how music, it permeates our lives and memories and it’s that association that we can create to recall those memories. One of my favorite quotes that I always go back to, I forget who it’s from, but it goes something along the lines of, “Everything in the universe has a rhythm and everything dances.” And I feel like that’s so present when it comes to music care. If you can find that rhythm that is attached to a memory, perhaps you can retrace that memory, which I think is really beautiful, right?

Marianna Blagburn:

I think it also means that if you’re not able to remember in that moment a particular memory, if you start with the music, then you can actually reconnect to those wonderful memories. And there’s a wonderful way that music helps us to connect to other people one-to-one, and as Amy was explaining, even in a group, but it can start from the music coming to you because maybe your mood doesn’t allow you to remember the music at that moment.

Matt:

Yep, 100%. Can you walk us through what a typical music therapy session might look like?

Amy Hewes:

Yeah. I’ll preface this by saying there are so many different types of music therapy groups you might do and it would look different if you’re doing a one-on-one thing, but what I have done and what I think the music therapists in our communities do who we have come in are thematic programs where they bring in songs around a different theme, which is really helpful for the folks in memory care because they get to focus on that theme. So maybe it’s summertime is the theme, so they’re going to do songs like In the Good Old Summertime, Sunshine On My Shoulders, Under the Boardwalk, things on that topic, which is nice. So you get some variety from week to week and you get to reminisce about a certain topic. And then within the theme, the idea is to incorporate different musical experiences that will work on different goal areas for the music therapy group. So there might be a song that afterwards I would ask a whole bunch of questions of the group to spark some reminiscing or ask them to reflect about a certain topic or a certain mood.

Other experiences might be playing instruments and you can turn it into a brain game. So you could say, “Every time you hear the word sunshine, you do this thing and every time you hear the word shoulders, you do something else.” So then it turns into a brain exercise, too. Singing, songwriting, all kinds of experiences that we would try to include just to get a really rounded experience. So that’s what I would do in a memory care setting with a group.

Matt:

So cool. And I’m really happy you mentioned a few songs. I was going to ask a follow-up, what are the residents jamming to or what songs or genres are you opening up your sessions with?

Amy Hewes:

Yeah. Well, I’ve been doing this for over 10 years now, so I’m starting to see a generational shift in the music that people respond to the most. So when I started, it was still very much the swing era was everybody’s favorite, but now we’re getting into people who really love the folk music of the ’60s and John Denver and the ’70s. So it’s fun for me, too, to be able to work with more music over the years.

Matt:

Music is often called a universal language because it can transcend cultural and language barriers to foster connection and community, which we’ve been discussing. As loneliness and social isolation continues to affect many older adults, how can music therapy help strengthen these social bonds? Marianna, I’ll lob it to you first.

Marianna Blagburn:

Sure, okay. So the social bonding is really one of the key aspects of the therapeutic value of listening and singing along and playing instruments in a setting, and we form circles and the social bonding that occurs, the laughter in between songs. We’re very big on the musicals, the Broadway musicals, we’re doing Oklahoma right now, so The Surrey with the Fringe on Top, all of these and our folks like to sometimes they have different expressions and they’re looking at one another and laughing and they really do talk in between the songs because they feel energized and they feel like it’s a safe space and they’re happy and it seems like a party. So I think that we really do mitigate and eliminate social isolation when singing in a group. So I think that that’s how our bonds are strengthened.

And then after the sessions are over, people continue to talk and be together. And so I think it’s a natural bonding modality and it’s lifelong. It doesn’t matter if children come in, other relatives, it has no age attached to it. When we do a Doris Day, Que Sera Sera, everybody loves it. They sing at the top of their lungs, they don’t have to be in tune. People feel successful and community sings have become so much more popular over the years and it really does help us to stay together and realize we need one another. We shouldn’t be isolated.

Matt:

The fact that residents are able to release inhibitions and just enjoy the party. This is something that folks in younger generations struggle with right now and we could learn from how the folks at Ingleside are getting down.

Marianna Blagburn:

So many different genres of music, too. And then, of course, there’s the dancing that could occur, right? Oh my gosh, that’s fun also, the movement.

Matt:

Oh man, I’ve got to go to one of these parties.

So across Ingleside’s communities, residents can participate in a variety of music-focused programs and events and parties. Are there any programs or musical guests that have been especially memorable for you, Amy?

Amy Hewes:

Yeah. So outside of music therapy, which is really tailored to the individuals, one that comes to mind is a program that we had at Westminster this past year and it’s now on break for the summer called The Sentimental Journey Singers, which is a program of encore creativity, but what they do is they offer a choral experience for people across the spectrum of abilities, including people with neurocognitive change. So it’s a choir for everyone where everyone’s welcome. It’s really for fun and there’s brain fitness built into the rehearsal. So it’s a place where people connect. They’re all there for the wellness aspect of it, but also just because they love music. So it was wonderful to see so many residents participate in that this past year.

Matt:

Super cool. What about you, Marianna, any highlights?

Marianna Blagburn:

Yeah, we have a relationship with the Washington Performing Arts and George Washington University, and in our day program, we did a wonderful weekly session where we actually wrote a song. It’s called Stained Glass Love and the residents wrote it and with help from the musical therapist, we were able to put on a concert for the broader community. It was a lot of fun. And then out of that, we created a community sing. And so it just broadened the circles and music reduces barriers. So even though we may have people who are part of our group who are at the front end, they have mild cognitive impairment or they may have moderate dementia, we have other people who are not in the category of undergoing neurocognitive change at this point and they join in, too. And so you can’t tell one from the other, everybody’s having a great time and it’s a moment that evokes such an emotional response and connection.

And I think that it’s important to point out that the story of music at Ingleside is that we have a wellness model at Ingleside at all three campuses, and it’s called the Wellbeing Model and it’s a lens to develop programs, but it really focuses on wellness and connection. So you can see how music fits into that perfectly in the Wellbeing Model and really gives us an opportunity to incorporate it throughout the day across all levels of care, all interests. And so I would say even as a broader community, every day there’s some concert or some sing-along, some activity, music therapy going on on all of the Ingleside campuses, which is really great. It’s music across the community.

Matt:

A lot of instrumentalists and singers and musicians, this is really awesome to hear. Even in my research and I was so impressed and inspired by the music therapy work in the Ingleside community, but I wasn’t aware of just how paramount it was to the livelihoods of the residents.

Marianna Blagburn:

Well, one of the things to note about that, that’s an important point that you make, Matt, because storytelling is also an attribute for the music programs across the Ingleside campuses. We all have stories. We remember stories. We know about these songs, the folk songs of the ’60s, Motown, classical music, operatic music, all of the genres, right? But they all have stories attached to them, if not, they’re composed of the story of the times, the social movements. And so that’s a wonderful piece to provide the frame for participants. And it’s wonderful to have the sing along, but the stories related to those songs and how they were used over time and that continuous learning journey is really important in terms of the participants and all of those who have joined us.

Matt:

Yeah. So music becomes an inroad to unlocking memories.

Marianna Blagburn:

Yes, absolutely, said perfectly.

Matt:

So switching gears for a moment, for caregivers out there who are interested in incorporating music into their caregiving toolkit, what are some simple ways to get started? Amy, I’ll throw it to you.

Amy Hewes:

Yeah, I love suggesting this to caregivers because it’s something that we all have access to, and if you’re caring for a loved one, even more so because you have the person’s preferred music right on hand, their album collection or CDs or whatever they have. So I would use it for enrichment activities throughout the day. It’s something to do. It could be done together or it could be done, something they could do independently for a little while. It’s great to put on while you’re also doing something hands-on. So maybe they’re working on a puzzle, but they can also be listening to music at the same time.

I think music is great for cueing as well. So maybe there’s a certain kind of music that you put on before a meal or that you put on before it’s time to bathe or during bathing just to make it feel more of a relaxed atmosphere. The music you hear in spas can be very relaxing and take some of the stress out of the experience for your loved one. And then I just look for other opportunities for music making out in the community, and that can go to respite care for you as well. So maybe something like the day programs that we offer at Ingleside or community choirs or concerts that you might go to. Maybe you still have to be there, but you can both enjoy the experience together and you’re maybe not having some of the stressful parts that come on the caregiving journey in that moment.

Matt:

Moving on to our last two questions that we love to ask all of our guests. Marianna first, when you were younger, what did you imagine growing older would be like?

Marianna Blagburn:

Well, I actually do remember this and being so happy in our family home because we had pockets of people everywhere. It was a small home and actually attached to a farm where we were farmers in so many respects, but we grew our own everything. I just imagined it like that, that I would have older people, everybody’s around, younger people are around and we’re talking and enjoying good things that we might eat and just telling our stories and going through our memories and having music in the background. So just very social and, of course, outdoor activities as well. But yeah, that’s how I imagined growing older for me would be, that I would have lots of people around whom I love and enjoy.

Matt:

That’s great. And I also acknowledge that you are nurturing that environment for the older adults that you’re caring for. So you’re creating that reality for others, which I think is really beautiful.

Marianna Blagburn:

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Matt:

Amy, what about you? What did you imagine growing older would be like?

Amy Hewes:

So when I was a kid, even though I had living grandparents who did not fit this model in my brain, honestly, I just thought that I would get gray hair and wrinkles and stay exactly the same otherwise. No health issues, just doing whatever I wanted to do all the time, but I probably, honestly, just probably didn’t think about it that much at all.

Matt:

That’s fair. Now that we are growing older, aging healthily, what do you enjoy most about growing older now, Marianna?

Marianna Blagburn:

I have everything I need for the journey. That’s what I enjoy now. I feel more confident that I’ll know what to do if challenges come up. I’ve been around the most amazing people in my work for the last 15 years, remarkable older people. I always like to say we follow their best practices in the world. They show us how this works and what it means to grow older, not being 100% and they are resilient beyond measure and I watch them to learn more.

Matt:

Absolutely. That’s the quote right there. You’re making my job so easy. Amy, what about you? What do you enjoy most about growing older?

Amy Hewes:

I feel like I’ve been able to let go of so many things that used to hold me back. Fear of judgment, what other people might think, that doesn’t matter as much anymore and every year it matters a little bit less. So I can’t wait to see what I’m like in a few decades. And just growing confidence like Marianna said, just feeling my sense of self, just feeling very secure in everything.

Matt:

Amy, Marianna, thank you so much for such a good conversation today.

For those out there listening, thank you for joining us on another episode of This is Growing Old. If you want to hear more episodes like this, feel free to visit us at agingresearch.org. See you next time.

This episode of This Is Growing Old was produced independently by the Alliance for Aging Research with support from PHRMA, members of the Alliance’s Corporate Partnership Council.