TV Sally: How music helped my mum fight dementia
THE power of music can help transform the lives of dementia sufferers, according to Scots broadcaster Sally Magnusson. The Reporting Scotland presenter, whose mother Mamie suffered from the debilitating condition for years, wants every person with dementia to be given access to a personalised playlist of meaningful music from their lives.
In the lead-up to her mother’s death in 2012, chronicled in Miss Magnusson’s book Where Memories Go: Why Dementia Changes Everything, the journalist found that singing was the one thing that could bring a light back to her mother’s dulling eyes.
She found that melodies and lyrics could bypass her mother’s
‘Singing made her come alive again’
deteriorating mental faculties and return a ‘sense of self’.
With around 90,000 people living with dementia in Scotland, and with older people living for longer and increasing their chances of developing symptoms, Miss Magnusson is determined to sing her message from the rooftops.
She set up the charity Playlist for Life in 2013, which advocates the use of music to rekindle forgotten memories and cut through the mental confusion that is synonymous with the condition.
Miss Magnusson said: ‘My mother had dementia for many years.
‘As she began to lose her capacities, we found more and more that singing with her – as she was always a great singer – made her come alive again. It was like a switch. It continued right until days before she died.
‘We were still able to bring the light back to her eyes by singing to her – even if it was just Ye Canny Shove Yer Grannie aff a Bus.
‘It reminded her of things. And I thought I’ve got to tell other people about this because if it works for my mother, then it could work for others.’
Playlist for Life wants every dementia sufferer to have access to a personalised playlist of music on a digital device such as an iPod or MP3 player.
The idea is to turn back time by listening to the tunes on headphones with a loved one or carer – so that a personal connection and emotional response can be re-established.
Miss Magnusson, who spoke of the benefits of the project to a soldout NHS conference on dementia in Aberdeen yesterday, said music could have a miraculous effect on people who may appear ‘lost’.
She said: ‘Music is so very potent – it fires off all sorts of neural pathways in the brain. Some of which are able to bypass the areas of the brain that are damaged by dementia.
‘It helps people get these neural pathways working and activated again in ways people around them might not have thought possible.
‘You could be slumped in your chair, looking as if there’s nothing going on in your head at all and people think, “Oh she’s gone”. Give them the music they danced to when they were young or the hymn that was played at their wedding or some beautiful piece of music that they always loved listening to and you immediately see a light returning to their eyes.
‘You see feet tapping, hands going. Often, people who have lost the ability to speak can remember the words to a song.
‘People who have no memory of what they did – even long ago – you play them that music and they are back in some meaningful way that allows them to feel that they know who they are again.’
More information about the charity can be found at www.play listforlife.org.uk.