The Healing Power of Music

Music therapy has been practiced for decades as a way to treat neurological conditions from Parkinson's to Alzheimer's to anxiety and depression. Now, advances reveal what's actually happening in the brain as patients listen to music or play instruments. Music therapy can help restore the loss of expressive language in patients with aphasia following brain injury from stroke, says Oliver Sacks, a noted neurologist and professor at Columbia University, who explored the link between music and the brain in his recent book Musicophilia. Beyond improving movement and speech, he says, music can trigger the release of mood-altering brain chemicals and once-lost memories and emotions.

As an ombudsman in nursing homes who spends hundreds of hours entertaining seniors I know full well the healing powers music has.

Any big lesson here? – well just that it’s important to cultivate and nourish a love for all kinds of music. It keeps you young and alive. And now we know why.

112 Year Old Artists Shows That You Always Have Purpose

A touching story found on cnn.com shows that no matter what your age or circumstance you can lead a quality of life if you have purpose. Frank Calloway, 112, paints murals at a nursing facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He has been institutionalized since 1952 after a diagnosis of schizophrenia. His work will be featured this fall at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

He draws rural agricultural scenes, with buildings, trains and vehicles straight out of the early 20th century on sheets of butcher paper sometimes stretching to more than 30 feet long.

Calloway draws from seven to nine hours a day at the Alice M. Kidd Nursing Facility. He was born July 2, 1896. He occasionally drew but his talent lay dormant until he took an art class in the 1980s and began to draw again.

Calloway used to give away some of his creations or sell them for $50, but an appraiser said they could be worth thousands. They hope to have more of an idea how much the art should go for after the Baltimore show.

After reading the article it would seem that he is more lucid than his diagnosis indicates and the article further states that he has dementia. Yet he has a world of memories of what it was like in the old south. And his talent has surely given him a purpose that no doubt has contributed to his longevity.

Nursing Home Arbitration Act

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial Law and Administrative Law just approved the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2008, moving the Act one step closer to becoming law. The Act prohibits the signing of an arbitration agreement as a prerequisite to nursing home admission.

This bipartisan legislation protects senior long-term care residents from signing away their right to have their case heard by a judge or jury. Nursing homes often require patients to sign mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses upon admittance.

The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act reflects the FAA's original intent and requires that agreements to arbitrate nursing home disputes be made after the dispute has arisen and not at the time of admittance into the home. While the new Act does not prohibit arbitration, it does prevent a nursing home corporation from forcing residents and their families into arbitration via a non-negotiable contract that was forced on the resident prior to the dispute.

In terms of education on long term care issues this is one piece of legislation you should follow.

A Toast to Independence

Sorry I have not written in a while. This article caught my eye. Barbara Brotman of the Chicago Tribune writes about how her mother needed rehab in a nursing home and when she requested some things be brought to her from her daughter, vodka for her Bloody Mary was on the top of the list. Well the facility found the vodka, made a stink and a doctor got involved. Read about it. It will give you a chuckle and a cause to pause. The rigidity of nursing facilities is why they have such bad reputations. I argue they can change the experience without becoming a Green House, the notion of Dr. William Thomas of standalone, self-regulated and managed facilities. Don't get me wrong. That is a great concept and an expensive one. Facilities can change resident experiences if they want to. That is the type of facility you want for your loved one.