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Music Ministry by Jef Gamblee, Life Source Hospice Chaplain

In this post, we share another great article from our 2015 Hospice Newsletter.

Several years ago I attended an in-service presentation sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association. The program shared excerpts from Alive Inside, a documentary by Dan Cohen, founder of Music and Memory, about using music to connect with people who have senior dementia.

The documentary explained that the music we knew in our teenage years remains a memory long into the debilitation of senior dementia. Since the beginning of 2015 I’ve brought this concept to many of our demented patients. A check of their file gives me their birth date and a Google search will show which music was popular when the individual was a teenager.

During my visits I use my smartphone to access YouTube. Sometimes the demented patient responds quickly to the music, with a smile, or a hum or even moving his or her arms as though conducting. Other times, the only response to the music is a change in the patient’s breathing. I’ve had some patients for whom the music has had no effect. I’ve also had a few dramatic responses to the music, including a long hard cry by a patient who appeared to be closed-up by her dementia, as well as with an immobile chair-bound patient, who upon hearing the music, began to move his hands and feet as though he was dancing. The music has become a key to opening the door, however briefly, to beloved community and a connection with life as they knew it.

The role of a hospice chaplain to clients with senior dementia is a movable feast, and the challenge of ministry varies from patient to patient. Being able to give our severely demented patients a moment of memory, and a moment of presence in a timeless fog is a moment of grace that I am thankful that I can facilitate.

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We appreciate Jef’s contribution and welcome your thoughts about how music can facilitate interactions in hospice settings.

Life Source Services Hospice is the premier North Jersey hospice and palliative care agency. We services Paramus, New Jersey and the surrounding areas, including: Clifton, Passaic, Ridgewood, and Wayne. Please contact us today for more information.