I co-presented a workshop on Creative Engagement at the American Society on Aging conference in San Francisco last week. Research shows that older adults who participate in creative actions have improved cognition and proprioception, enhanced meaning in their life, reduced loneliness, and recognition/engagement in a social life. Creativity makes brains bloom!
There were notable speakers on diverse topics, but I will highlight presentations focusing on aging brains. Maureen Nash, MD, assesses and treats behavioral disturbance in older adults with mental illness or dementia in Portland, OR, where she is Medical Director at Providence Elderplace. In 2020 she was named Clinician of the Year by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.
Nash’s key points are encouraging for those who fear that aging is a down-facing dog pose in life with no possible upward movement. Here are takeaway notes from an award-winning psychiatry specialist:
- It is possible to develop new synapses in older adulthood. While older adults have reduced speed in learning new information, their “bigger networks” and life experiences can lead to an increased ability for problem-solving.
- The best way to provide dementia care is to identify an individual’s unmet physical and psychological needs. Match interventions to the reasons behind their behaviors. It is possible to foster resilience in older adults with dementia.
Another session on the dementia journey focused on recovering resilience with music interventions (Vanderbilt University Music Research Institute). Music has roots in multiple branches in brains. One creative approach that includes individuals who are bed-ridden is to provide a small piano with wheels so that a pianist rolls into hospice settings, hospitals, memory centers, and rehabilitation spaces. It is important to get a playlist of familiar songs for each person. When some individuals no longer talk, they suddenly may sing along when a favorite song from their past returns them to an early memory.
Julene Johnson, PhD, at University of California, San Francisco, believes in “waking up” a person with dementia. A previous flute major, Johnson imagines a world where everyone has access to music, but especially those with dementia. Her colleague, social worker Dan Cohen, founder of the nonprofit organization Music & Memory, has a Netflix documentary that is inspiring. Check out Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, to see a joy-filled intervention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9IHUPamCB4
As stated in the documentary, “Music can be a back door into the mind.” What might happen if we extended more research and focus with this gateway to the inner branching of brains in caring for older adults instead of spending millions of dollars on medical prescriptions that many physicians admit are not game changers?
Kim McCoy Wade, Senior Advisor for Aging, Disability and Alzheimer’s (Office of California Governor), recommends that everyone participate in positive aging: “Give people an action. What is your pro-aging action?”
Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz
277. What music would make your personal playlist?
278. If you have musical talent, where might you volunteer to make brains bloom?
Pearls of Peace: A Family Psychologist’s Circle-of-Life Blog 
Hi Jan,
Music made a huge difference in my stroke recovery🥰. Great info to share!
Hugs, MR
Sent from my iPhone
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Yes, music can help heal whatever ails a person! Thanks for sharing your story!
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I wonder if any studies have compared the function of the brains of musicians with those of people who have had very little music in their lives. And is there a difference between music we listen (dance!) to and that which we produce (instrument/voice). I feel deep gratitude to have had music in my whole life – mom played piano and bass, I tried piano, oboe and guitar, and now have returned to choir. Some classical pieces bring me to tears, and my playlist would range from Girl Scout campfire songs to a few hymns to pop from the 60’s on. Music belongs in our schools!! “My life rolls on in endless song; how can I keep from singing?”
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Hi Janis, I’ve so wanted to get in touch with you lately, but there’s just too much to deal with right now, I’m still overwhelmed. I’ve missed reading your blog for a few weeks. In this week’s blog your description of presentations on aging and the brain, by Maureen Nash, MD, seem to convey that dementia and mental illness in aging adults are the same. My sister, who died three weeks ago at 89 in an assisted care home in La Grange, was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 14 and struggled with it all her life. My daughter Julie and I visited her, and we both agreed that what we saw going on with her was not dementia as we saw it in other people in that setting; her behavior was totally different, the main difference that we saw was the fact that she remembered everything, both long and short term. No need to waste your time right now trying to explain it to me! Just wanted to let you know that I love your blog, read it when I can, and like to reflect on the things you present. Good for you that you’re continuing your “learning life”! Liene
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You have great questions, Karen, but I do not have ready answers! I am aware of research to suggest that conductors of orchestras tend to have good longevity due to all that arm-over-the-head movement. Yes, some music can bring me to tears as well and I agree that a playlist can have music across the life span. You mention the 60’s — I would include some Beatles songs – along with Handel’s Messiah and many classical selections.
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Thank you for highlighting your sister’s life with a difficult diagnosis of schizophrenia at such a tender age. You are right. Neither Dr. Nash nor I would say that dementia and mental illness are “the same.” I am sorry if I gave that perception. I meant to say that Dr. Nash works with both of these challenging populations. Not only are these diseases challenging for the individual, but also for those who love them dearly.
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