Hospice Care
Hospice is reserved for those individuals who are expected to live six months or less. The focus is on caring, not curing. Hospice provides comfort and support and creates an environment of empathy for individuals to maintain dignity and quality of life.
End of life is a time for relationship closures, remembering events and significant people, and passing on of personal legacies. Music therapy addresses these key issues as well as easing pain and emotional discomfort, filling spiritual needs, decreasing isolation and anxiety, and facilitating the grieving process. Music has the ability to touch, move, and affect us.
Memory Care and Assisted Living
Music therapy helps redirect in dementia care and can transcend language and deeply connect with emotions. Music can bring back distant memories and have a significant impact on our mood. Music has a proven impact on behavior, stimulation of cognitive function, and overall quality of life.
Music Lights up the Brain ~ Biochemical Proof of Music’s Power
“Music does awaken the brain,” says Dr. Frederick Schaerf, founder and principal investigator of the Neuropsychiatric Research Center of Southwest Florida, in Fort Myers. “The data are very compelling.”
A PET scan traces an injection of radioactive glucose through the body. When the subject hears music, Schaerf explains, the scanned brain lights up with activity and releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate the brain’s pleasure and reward centers, as well as emotional responses and motivation.
That dopamine boost, says Schaerf, may be one of the key reasons why music is such a powerful means to enable people with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia to connect to positive memories and feel more peaceful and engaged with the world.
(excerpt from http://www.musicandmemory.org)
Kindred Spirits Music Therapy 