Inspiring Interview with "Alive Inside" Director

Wow. I highly recommend taking eight minutes to watch the interview below with the director of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival's Audience Favorite, the documentary "Alive Inside," about the power of music to reach people with advanced dementia--specifically music from their childhoods. 

Michael Rossato-Bennett is so excited about the subject of his film that he would like to change the name of the film to "Make Grandma a Playlist!" He says that "music from your formative years hits you in a way that nothing else does." Rossato-Bennett was commissioned to design the website for the nonprofit Music and Memory, which campaigns to bring personalized music to nursing home residents, and he was so impressed with the program that he decided to document the work of Music and Memory in a film. 

Seventy-five percent of the people he filmed in nursing homes with advanced dementia--people who usually sit slumped down, unresponsive--"come alive" when they listen to their favorite music from their childhood and teen years on headphones. When the headphones are taken off, they are able to talk about their memories and have a real conversation.

As he says, the parts of the brain that process music are "basically spared" by Alzheimer's (and perhaps other dementias). Despite advanced dementia, all people have "life deep down inside us."

Music is not a cure for dementia, of course, but personalized music can be amazingly powerful.

Check out his interview, or my blog post last week, for more information about the film, which opened last week in select theaters across the country and will be available on iTunes and as a DVD in October.

"Alive Inside": New, Inspiring Movie About Dementia and Music

Photo courtesy of "Alive Inside"One stigma of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is the belief that people living with advanced dementia are completely “gone”--“shells of their former selves.” A new documentary shows that people with advanced dementia who may seem to have lost their ability to speak are still capable of being roused and engaged in conversation. It turns out that music is key—specifically, individualized music from the person’s childhood and young adulthood.

Now through September, the film “Alive Inside” is premiering in select theaters across the country, and is well worth seeing if you know someone with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia—and even if you don’t. “Alive Inside” chronicles the work of social worker Dan Cohen, founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Music and MemorySM. Cohen has campaigned for years to bring personalized music to nursing home residents in the form of an iPod or other digital device loaded with the person’s favorite music from childhood or early adulthood.Hundreds of nursing homes in the U.S. and Canada have implemented Music and Memory, and Cohen hopes the film will help bring personalized music to many more elders.

Directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett, “Alive Inside” won the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and has been much anticipated because of a popular clip on YouTube. That clip shows a man named Henry with dementia who rarely speaks but “comes alive” when he listens to the jazz of Cab Calloway. “Alive Inside” includes conversations with the renowned neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, the musician Bobby McFerrin, and experts in elder and dementia care such as Dr. Bill Thomas.

Read the rest of my post on caregivers.com.

Guest Post: What Caregivers Need to Know about Financial Planning

My mom, Judy, might have been able to stay longer in her "memory care" assisted living facility if I had consulted a financial plannerI don’t regret a whole lot about the eight years I was my mother’s caregiver, but one thing I wish I had done differently is I wish I had sought the advice of a financial planner. Today’s guest post about financial planning may help you avoid some of the mistakes I made.

When my mother, Judy, was living in a memory care facility with the middle stages of Alzheimer’s disease, she ran out of savings and I applied for her to go on Medicaid. Her application was denied because of an error I made when I sold her home, an error which ended up costing my family a great deal of money. I wish I had known enough back then to consult not only an attorney familiar with Medicaid rules in our state (which I did), but also a financial planner who could have helped me plan ahead and avoid costly missteps.

Today I am pleased to share with you a guest post from financial planner Kathleen Clark of S.E.E.D. Financial Strategies. Kathleen and I recently spoke together on a panel at a case management conference at Binghamton University in Upstate New York. She has guided many family caregivers to better financial health.

Click here to read the guest post on caregivers.com.

More Great Memoirs about Dementia Caregiving!

"Leaving Tinkertown," by Tanya Ward Goodman, one of the memoirs Susan Macauley and I recommend in this blog postIf you are living with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia, or caring for a person with dementia, sometimes the best way to feel less alone and to understand the challenges ahead is not to read a dementia care guide like the excellent "36-Hour Day" but to immerse yourself in another caregiver's life by reading a well-written memoir.

Susan Macauley of the blog My Alzheimer's Story and I have teamed up to recommend our favorite memoirs about dementia caregiving, in two parts.

Click here to go to Susan's blog and read Part II, "Six More Alzheimer's Memoirs Worth Reading."

Book Review: "I Care: A Handbook for Care Partners of People with Dementia"

Have you heard of the term “care partner”? A new book describes why dementia caregivers often find it more fulfilling to think of themselves not as care “givers” but as care “partners.”

If you care for a person with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia, I highly recommend a short but comprehensive new guide called “I Care:  A Handbook for Care Partners of People with Dementia” (Balboa Press, 2014) by dementia care experts Jennifer Brush and Kerry Mills.

According to the authors, a care partner is someone who receives as well as gives care and affection. While care “giving” can seem one-sided (and never-ending), a care “partnership” is reciprocal and rewarding.

Are “Care Partnerships” Really Possible?

Mom and me in her nursing home

When I first started caring for my mother, Judy, 10 years ago, I felt that all I was doing was giving—my time, energy, and patience—around the clock. I would have resisted the idea that my mother, who seemed much diminished with early-stage dementia, had anything to give back to me. For a while, I even thought of her as my third child (which I soon learned was not a great idea). I assumed that my job as caregiver meant doing things for Mom: running errands, taking her to the doctor and emergency room, making sure she had enough to eat and clean clothes to wear, paying her bills. But as a caregiver is quoted as saying in “I Care,” “to become a care partner, one first has to be present. This is far different from just being there.”

Read the rest of this post on caregivers.com.