“I’m actually in St. Louis today for the Alzheimer’s disease center meetings. Would you be interested in meeting sometime between 9:30 and 1PM for either coffee or lunch?” 

Pick your jaw up from the floor, Denise, and cue Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” from The Messiah! 
​
While I’ve had the honor of meeting numerous neurologists along my journey, this particular invitation was the beginning of a wonderful liaison with Andrew E. Budson, MD.  

In September's article, presented Alzheimer's statistics promoted a necessity for all to step into a role initiating difficult conversations with family members on preparedness: "Certainly sharing facts and figures creates awareness, but the sting of today is temporary. We need permanent solutions in place for tomorrow."

Understanding that these encounters are exceedingly tough to navigate in person, we must also evaluate how we can cover our bases when loved ones are far away. How do we handle strenuous situations from afar when it's hard enough to master in person? 

To discuss some ideas, we are welcoming Ms. Claire Wentz of Caring from Afar!

Long-Distance Caregiving: How to Keep Your Senior Loved One Happy and Healthy
 
It can be extremely difficult to be a caregiver to someone you love when you live in different states. However, many adults are unable to move closer to an aging parent or relative. Fortunately, with a little help from technology and a great support team, you can ensure your senior loved one is happy and healthy. Here’s what you need to know:

Get Connected with the Right Phone
To stay connected with friends, family, and medical providers, your loved one must have a reliable, easy-to-use phone. For example, if your loved one prefers flip phones, then opt for something like the LG Exalt LTE, which still offers functionality such as texting and calling. For seniors who want the power of a smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy J3 V 3rd Gen is the way to go. There are also a number of accessories that will help seniors enjoy their phones.

Evaluate the Home for Safety
Even if you are not residing in the immediate area of your senior parent or loved one, you need to check that the home is safe and secure. If they are living independently, visit their home and make sure it’s had all the necessary renovations, including doorways widened and ramps installed for wheelchairs. It should also feature bathroom modifications, such as shower chairs, walk-in tubs, and safety bars. Adequate lighting is vital throughout the home to help avoid falls. The right home improvements can help ensure a senior will be able to age in place at home where they are comfortable and familiar. An easy-to-use security system is also essential.

If your loved one is residing in assisted living or a nursing home, it’s also important to visit the facility as well. Talk to the staff about everything from meals to medication and visiting hours to social activities. Schedule regular conference calls with any doctors and staff to get up-to-date information about your loved one’s health and well-being.

Arrange for In-Home Care if Necessary
For those aging in place, you may need to arrange for in-home care on a part- or full-time basis. Get local referrals from friends and doctors, or use a caregiver service to find the right person for the job. Even if your relative doesn’t need in-home care quite yet, you may want to consider hiring an aging life care professional or geriatric care manager to evaluate their unique situation. These providers are licensed nurses or social workers who can evaluate senior’s needs and coordinate necessary services needed.

Get Local Assistance
If the older adult has no relatives in the immediate geographical area, enlist the help of neighbors, church members, and others nearby to keep an eye out on your loved one and notify you immediately if any issues arise. When your parent or family member is living alone and begins to have difficulties with daily living activities, such as preparing meals, toileting, or bathing, then it may be time to consider assisted living or a nursing facility. These types of facilities can provide assistance with daily activities, as well as access to medical care, transportation, social activities, wellness programs, and other amenities.
​
If circumstances prevent you and your aging parent or relative from living in the same city, it can be difficult — but not impossible — to make sure they get the care they need. Visit as often as you can, touch base on a daily basis by phone or video chat, and enlist the help of local caregivers, medical providers, neighbors, and friends. It will take research and dedication, but you can keep your loved one happy and healthy from afar.
​
Photo via Pixabay

#Talent #Myelin #Music #Musicians #MusicEducators #MusicEducation  #BuildMyelin #NeverTooLateToLearnMusic #MusicInTheBrain #MusicForAll #SkillsAreMade #BrainCircuits

#musiciansformemories #musicians #musiceducators #EndAlz #TheLongestDay #AlzheimersAssociation #BandDirectors #ChoirDirectors #OrchestraDirectors #SymphonyOrchestras #MusicEnsembles #Conductors #music #musicandmemory #musicinthebrain #MusicServiceLearning #CommunityOutreach #GivingBack #MusiciansGive

Affordability
“In its most recent report on arts education, U.S. Department of Education noted that "whether a school offered music instruction varied by its concentration of poverty."⁶ For example, elementary schools with higher concentrations of poverty were significantly less likely to offer music year-round, to have dedicated rooms and equipment for music instruction, and to have arts specialists available to teach music."

We all understand the financial burdens of learning a musical instrument, and some are more costly than others. Often times, larger suburban districts have the upper hand when it comes to availability of finances per student, but a resourceful answer could be endowments or donations that fuel need-based scholarships for struggling families in smaller or private schools. When there is nowhere else to turn, districts must be held accountable to uphold the premise of Goals 2000: Educate America Act, No Child Left Behind, and now the Every Child Achieves Act approved by Congress, which slated music as a core subject.

“It is essential to recognize that “access” does not simply refer to the existence of music opportunities at a school: it means that opportunities are easily accessible to all interested students. While a school may report “offering” music, it does not always follow that all interested students are able to participate; some remain excluded from this fundamental part of a well-rounded education due to a variety of financial, social, structural, and musical barriers. Each student should have equal access to a rich, meaningful, and inclusive music life. To address this, we must make existing music opportunities in city schools more robust and inclusive."

Elitism is further ignited when high schools require camps, charge marching band fees, attend regular competitions, and offer trips, which again engages the manifestation of exclusionary elements.

“We call for both school leadership and classroom music educators to consider the ways in which their current practices might be exclusionary to students. By examining current practices and trends—however uncomfortable doing so might be—it is possible to identify the barriers that prevent potentially interested students from participating in music. These may include:
Financial barriers: prohibitive costs, including purchase/rental of an instrument and fees for uniforms or transportation; incapacity to pay for outside-of-school enrichment opportunities including private lessons and summer music intensives; the need to spend out-of-school hours in employment rather than in rehearsals or practicing.”

Keep in mind instrument rental stores acquire playable overflow that can be made available through the course of the year as well. Stores may even donate instruments to schools as tax write offs; therefore, making a phone call when a student is in need never hurts. Reaching out to parents, whether PTO or booster representatives, can often have powerful social media pull in acquiring instruments through donation.

No matter how difficult or seemingly expensive opening multiple grade-level access points might be, our students have the right to an instrumental music education.


Process over Product
Over the last 300 years of music education in the United States, there is and continues to be an emphasis on developing well-polished, elitist products to promote the recognition of performance accolades at state and national conventions. Our measurement of quality music programs tends to rest entirely on an ensemble’s ability to record and be selected by a panel of university professors, but what about all the other underlying factors that could be used to determine the success of a well-rounded music program?

Perpetually, directors pose these types of judgmental notions to fellow music educators:  

• How many students are in your program?
• What percentage of students make the honors band/orchestra yearly?
• How many students were selected for state this year?
• How many entries do you have attending solo and ensemble festival?
• What number of those entries received Superior ratings?
• What grade literature does your top ensemble perform?
• What did your ensembles receive at contest this spring?
• Do your students receive regular private lessons?

All of these ruminating questions tend to define the success of one’s program, and they all have to do with developing a product. Why?

“We have to trust these feelings. We have to trust the invisible gauges we carry within us. We have to realize that a creative being lives within ourselves, whether we like it or not, and that we must get out of its way, for it will give us no peace until we do. Certain kinds of egotism and ambition as well as certain kinds of ignorance and timidity have to be overcome or they will stand in the way of the creator. And though we are well thought of by others, we will feel cross and frustrated and envious and petulant, as if we had been cheated, somehow, by life". –M.C. Richards, Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person

Directors, NAfME members, and administrators alike, your challenge is to raise the bar for the artistic processes so encouraged by the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) and redefine your expectations. Some considerations:

• Why are we still writing classroom assessments based on product preparation or performance?
• Why does large ensemble festival merely take a snapshot of performing elements alone?
• Why are we allowing ensembles to perform at state and national conventions without analyzing the entire program’s artistic processes output as a whole?
• Where are the new curricula, accounting for less concert preparation and more project-based learning and ideals to enable this shift to the NCCAS?

Engaging in the intended shift means analyzing student understanding of these processes (creating, responding, and performing); not putting out performances for spectatorship alone. It may also allow directors breathing room to effectively enjoy their craft, and in turn, our students to further appreciate our programs.

“Innate human dignity implies innate human rights. The right to enjoy and participate in society and culture is a natural extension of this relationship.”

Lastly, in order to accommodate the rewiring of our student’s brains in a technologically advanced era and shortening attention spans, we must agree that perhaps the time of child prodigies and pedagogues is coming to a close. Children are unable to engage in mastering skill sets for hours, and so, the original foundation of our music education system must relocate and rebuild to survive.

The landscape is vastly different than even 10 years ago, and the time to provide access at every age, and at any cost, is now. The basic fundamentals of what it means to promote humanity through the vehicle of music is at stake.

​#MusicEducation #musiceducators #musicians #education #NCCAS #MusicforAll #MusicInclusion #NAfME #MusicEducatorsAssociation #MusicAccess 

"As a child, I was always a dreamer: a kid with big eyes and big ideas. Too often I was reminded they were too grandiose for our reality. But, what is our reality? It’s what we make it. 

At the age of 30 with a successful career in marketing, I found myself at a life roadblock. I had done everything perfectly. I followed the path of opportunity with provided privileges. I did what I was supposed to do. At the end of the day, I felt empty - like what I did really didn't matter. This feeling was a constant reminder after suddenly losing my mother at the age of 24. What did I want to do with my life? How can I make a difference?

A year prior, I shadowed a board certified music therapist in a phase 4 school working with an autistic child. The child walked in, head down, and did not use words to communicate. By the end of the session, his eyes were looking at mine, he was engaged, and energetically said, “Bye!” That moment changed my life. I cashed it all in for two more degrees: music and a masters in music therapy. 

Years later doors started opening to work with various populations, from disabilities, to memory care, psych, education, brain injuries, and hospitals. I became a trained in NMT (neurologic music therapy), studying the brain and music therapy interventions based on scientific outcomes and practice. Specifically, I was one of two board certified music therapists to work for a non-profit 501c3 under Maryville University called Kids Rock Cancer. In joining the team, I met Tracie Sandheinrich, MT-BC (pictured below), who helped start Kids Rock Cancer. To say we hit it off is an understatement. With Tracie specializing in hospice, palliative care, and geriatric, she and I both had private practices and shared our woes of the contract-driven side of the music therapy world in our community: How can we take care of music therapists so they don’t burn out? How can we provide consistent and quality care? How can we be the most reliable resource to our community? How can we advocate and let people know music therapy is a thing and very much a clinical practice?

Well, no one else was doing it, so we did. We joined forces to create Music Therapy St. Louis, LLC where we now serve nearly every population. We are both trained in NMT and have post-graduate work under our belt. We are the first company in our area to hire board certified music therapists as employees to co-treat and support clients as a team. We often find ourselves driving around town speaking, advocating and supporting community groups. Music Therapy St. Louis is hoping to have a brick and mortar home base where we can host music therapy and community groups. Furthermore, we are working towards building a scholarship program for families who may not be able to afford services but could significantly benefit from them. With Kids Rock Cancer, Pujols Family Foundation, St. Louis Arc, Lafayette Industries, St. Francis of Assisi, a plethora of Hospice Organizations and more, we find ourselves grateful every day, and continue to strive to offer consistent and quality care on both sides of the river in Missouri and Illinois. All of this would not have possible without big eyes, being big dreamers, and the creation of Kids Rock Cancer. 

Kids Rock Cancer is free for families by the generosity of donors and grants. We do therapeutic songwriting, recording, and performance with children diagnosed with cancer or blood disorders, and help the children affected by close relatives suffering from those ailments. In some cases, we provide services bedside to make it as comfortable as possible for the child. Music therapy is a safe playground for children to express, cope, and digest the feelings of diagnosis. It gives them control when they have lost every bit of it, and allows them to play when they have to grow up so quickly.

​Before I was brought on to the team, I decided to do my masters specialization thesis on therapeutic songwriting themes in pediatric oncology. While doing the research I found only two published pieces on this topic. Globally.
Our answer was releasing groundbreaking research with Understanding Lyrical Expression: Songwriting Themes in Pediatric Cancer, soon to be published in music therapy’s leading qualitative journal Music Therapy Perspectives. In addition to music therapy, we are looking into child psychology journals to aid child life staff on the findings. 

Here is a brief abstract from the research:
The purpose of the study was to identify song themes from the Kids Rock Cancer program through mixed method lyrical inductive microanalysis, quantitative measurement of word and category frequency and deductive analysis. Thirty oncology pediatric patients participated in the study (n=30). Inductive microanalysis revealed eight key themes: emotions, experience (inside the hospital), support, identification, outside the hospital, wants/desires, third party and future. Quantitate analysis of word and category frequency determined “hospital related experiences” as the most frequent category expressed and the word “family” as the most frequent word used in therapeutic songwriting. It is critical to understand common themes developed from the therapeutic songwriting process. If therapists better understand the content and potential of expression, they can improve services and, as a result, enhance therapeutic outcomes. 

What is the benefit to this research?
There is a need for more research on therapeutic songwriting in this population. First, music therapy promotes active engagement, encouraging independence through choice making initiation of ideas and problem solving (Aldridge, 1993; Barrickman, 1989; Froehlich, 1996; Magill, Coyle, Handzo & Loscalzo, 1997; McDonnell, 1984; Robb, 2003, 2000). In addition to engagement, songwriting maintains “open communication and hope, which have been identified as aspects of good coping in children diagnosed with cancer” (Artinian, 1976; Cordobes, 1997; Froehilch, 1984; McConville et al., 1990; O’Callaghan 1996, 1997; Robb, 2003, 1996; Wiley & House, 1988). Furthermore, “it can provide insight about how the child is adjusting to the illness or coping with the treatment, and provide opportunities to acknowledge, support, and explore feelings regarding hospitalization” (Kennelly J., 2001). Moreover, music therapy can be used to address a variety of complexities experienced by children and families during hospitalization and treatment of cancer and blood diseases. These goals include, but are not limited to, pain reduction and tolerance, pain control, distraction, relaxation, expression, positive environmental stimulus, normalization, play and support (Davis, W., Gfeller, K., Thaut, M., 2008). Of all the benefits music therapy brings, pain is important with this population because recent findings state that pain is most common and prevalent for pediatric inpatients (Cotton, et al, 2014, p. 98). In addition to pain, decreasing anxiety is another reported benefit of music therapy (Wheeler, B., 2015, p. 108). According to O’Callaghan, C., Baron, A., Barry, P., & Dun, B. (2011), a substantive grounded theory emerged when examining music relevance for pediatric cancer patients. Unfavorable cancer experiences were relieved with the use of music. Furthermore, music promoted pediatric resilience and development. In addition, music therapy would frequently ease distress. (p. 779). Qualitative research suggests that “any fragment of joy and beauty that can be shared is treasured” when using music therapy with children diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness (Lindenfelser et al, 2008, p. 343). O’Callaghan reinforces this idea when examining oncology parent inpatients to their children. The research “indicated that song writing can enable important yet difficult communication at this time” (O’Callaghan, C., Grocke, D., 2009, p. 321). 

Therefore, these evidence-based benefits to patients along with the demand increase of therapeutic services, increased use of therapeutic songwriting and lack of research focusing on lyrical understanding in pediatric oncology determine a critical need for this research to ultimately enhance quality of therapeutic services. As therapeutic songwriting increases in popularity among music therapy interventions so does the importance of demonstrating program outcome and success. According to Jones, “additional research on the clinical efficacy of original songs and therapist’s compositional processes is needed to identify best practices models for strategic songwriting” (Jones, J. D., 2006, p. 94). However, the only way to understand therapy efficacy to is understand the lyrical expression first. Additional knowledge will help inform educators, music therapists, administrators and hospitals how to grow and maximize benefits to patients. The purpose of this study is to identify common lyrical themes of the retrospective and released songs written in the Kids Rock Cancer program. If therapists better understand the content and potential of emotional expression, they can improve and enhance therapeutic services. 

So much has happened in 10 years; however, dreamers are dreamers and doers are doers. It wasn’t an easy road but worth the reward. During that time, I had to seek out my support system. Surprisingly, not everyone in my life was understanding of this life choice. For me, it was the best choice I could have made. I had to work hard to digest and accept those feelings, and be okay with the idea that people in my life were disapproving of my decision to leave my opportunistic and safe path. I created my own. I live everyday with a Mark Twain quote, “Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” You never know where your dreams may take you. 

Photo Credits: Richard A Nichols. Bottom: Jaime watching her patient with cancer listen to a recording of her first original song.
#MusicTherapy #MusicTherapySTL #KidsRockCancer #MusicTherapists #Musicians #MusicEducators #AMTA #MusicTherapies #therapeuticsongwriting #mtstl #songwriting #grouptherapy 

"When the deepest part of you becomes engaged in what you are doing, when your activities and actions become gratifying and purposeful, when what you do serves both yourself and others, when you do not tire within but seek the sweet satisfaction of your life and your work, you are doing what you were meant to be doing. The personality that is engaged in the work of its soul is buoyant. It is not burdened with negativity. It does not fear. It experiences purposefulness and meaning. It delights in its work and in others. It is fulfilled and fulfilling." -Gary Zukav, The Seat of the Soul

It is interesting how one can get pulled into social media: memes, videos, pictures, news networks, negative comments. All the sudden, you lose 20 or more minutes of your life wrapped around a screen when it was your last intention. Then, I see people discovering stories released 2-5 years ago and sharing posts as if they are brand new. For example, a member of a Facebook group called Music Teachers recently posted the story of Henry, an unresponsive dementia patient from the documentary Alive Inside  by David Cohen. As a refresher from my 2014 blog, the assisted living facility where Henry was being treated received a grant for iPods from the Music and Memory Foundation, and his daughter helped load it with Henry’s favorite artists and tunes. When headphones playing Cab Calloway were placed over his ears, Henry lit up with energy and came alive, singing along and speaking about the music from another time.

Am I excited to see that musicians are continuing to discover the power of music in the brain for those with dementia? Absolutely. Is there disappointment that the message is still missing educators? Yes.

Music therapy is a vastly growing career field, but skeptics exist in the music world, even with a great deal of qualitative and quantitative based evidence to support its’ positive effects. A member of the same Facebook group responded to the post saying, “That works a for a period of time, but unfortunately fades as the disease progresses. It also does nothing to improve cognition, unfortunately. It is just a nice moment perhaps for the caregiver. Nobody can be sure about that right now, but it does say something about the permanency of dual coding (associated items to be learned with music or pictures for instance).”

My friends, frustration abounds for these comments made by people who are obviously not doing their homework. Accessing Google, one can easily plug in “current music therapy research for Alzheimer’s” and find an overwhelming amount of information, such as this publication released by NIH from Translational Neurodegeneration in 2017, which states, “MT [Music Therapy] can be considered a non-pharmacological intervention which has the potential effects to reduce cognitive decline, improve neuropsychiatric symptoms, and enhance the QOL [Quality of Life] of AD [34]. Researches have demonstrated that MT can protect cognition of AD especially autobiographical and episodic memories, psychomotor speed, executive function, and global cognition.”

Music and Memory, a non-profit organization out of New York linked above, has presented years of longevity studies on how music increases cognitive and functional tasks in those with dementia.

Newspapers across the country are starting to take notice of music therapy as a valid choice for dementia patients and improving QOL. A June 2018 article from the Chicago Tribune funneled down to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the powerful work Northwestern University is doing through a 12-week music therapy program at Silverado Memory Care in Morton Grove.

Music therapy does work!

That being said, musicians and music educators are not music therapists, but we do have the a powerful opportunity to use our gifts to validate all we are doing with students daily. To simply teach music within the four walls of our classroom would be a mistake. Without validation in the form of purposeful engagement serving others, empowerment in leadership skills, and opportunities to be innovative thinkers who create their own learning experiences in and outside the classroom, our students may feel a lack of desire and interest. Rightfully so as we consider those driving questions every student asks central to their learning process: What’s the purpose? Why am I learning this, and how does it apply to me? And for our young musicians: Why should I study music? Why put forth the effort to learn an instrument/sing a song? How will this benefit me?

Take time to assess your philosophy this summer and reflect on Gary Zukav's sentiment above. When we apply our hearts and souls to an outcome where it touches the lives of others in a positive manner, we have the power to change the world; we experience purposefulness, meaning, and fulfillment in our life’s work.

Suzuki once said, “Perhaps it is music that will save the world.” It may not be physically possible to save the entirety of the world, but it is humanly possible to help save someone from their own world of suffering through our humanity. All we need is more love and kindness... Please share your music today. ​

The 2018 Facts:
1. Between 2000 and 2015, deaths from heart disease decreased by 11% while deaths from Alzheimer's increased 123%. 
2. 5.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's, and 16.1 caregivers provide unpaid care for those living with Alzheimer's or another dementia valued at over $232 billion.
3. Every 65 seconds someone in the US is diagnosed with the disease, and over 14 million are projected to be living with it by 2050.
4. 1 in 3 seniors dies from Alzheimer's or another dementia, now killing more people than breast and prostate cancer combined. 
... The numbers are sobering, and the time to act in the best interest of our loved ones is now, my friends.

​I'd like to welcome Ms. Lydia Chan to discuss items of pertinence when considering an effective, safe home environment as a potential caregiver...