Music rests the mind

Working in a mental health unit where elders are cared for gives me lots of opportunity to be with elders with dementia, often also with a primary mental illness. This combination is a challenge as people with dementia are often anxious and frustrated trying to figure out what is happening to them. People with mental illness challenges also have low frustration tolerance and are very anxious. Both are sensitive to loud noise and often the unit is quite noisy. Carts are being pushed down the corridor, nurses are explaining medications to their patients, the TV in the kitchen area is seeminly always blaring, and patients are requesting their needs of the staff. My job there is to model effective ways to speak to and work well with such hurting people. My way of doing this is to avoid looking at the diagnosis so I don't put whatever they do or say into the 'labeled' box. I think this fitting a person into a label is dangerous and unkind. Patients are people first, people with a history, with strengths, survival skills, vulnerabilities and challenges. People with mental illness challenges, like most people, respond to lightheartedness and sincere laughter. They respond positively to my acting a bit goofy at times, bantering with them, singing with them, playing with them. This, after all, is what I went into nursing for; to be with people and help them heal. I watched a video from The Alzheimer Weekly, an e-newsletter I get on line that has new treatments for dementia and promising research. One video today was on the value of music when language is no longer easy to use and/or to understand. One elder I worked with years ago in her home got a bath each day to my singing a song to her the whole time I bathed her. It was only with music she could handle her anxiety about the bath. It was a long song that took us through the alphabet describing her...A you're adorable, B you're so beautiful, C you're a cutie full of charm etc ending in W,X Y and Z...I love to wander through the alphabet with you, to tell you what you mean to me was how it ended. By then she was clean and we were friends. We recently had a patient on our unit who played a very good keyboard. While he was there he would play soft jazz and hymns too while he sat next to an anxious elder with dementia.It was amazing to see how the music 'got through' to the person. Often the elder would start singing along to the music. Music soothes the person and allows the mind to rest from its struggles.I think it helped him heal too, giving to others of his talent. I forwarded the video on Music Therapy to LinkedIn. It is visible to anyone.