Author Sally Magnusson shares the story behind her Playlist For Life
Broadcaster and author Sally Magnusson founded Playlist For Life, a charity helping dementia patients through music. Mairi Hughes is keen to hear more.
IN recent years, the positive impact of music on those living with dementia has become increasingly apparent. Whether it be tunes whistled around the home in childhood, a melody that once echoed through a dance hall, or a song which saw newlyweds shuffle around a dance floor, music can trigger memories of days gone by like nothing else.
Sally Magnusson, writer, broadcaster and founder of charity Playlist For Life, found that music was key to communication with her mother, Mamie Magnusson, while she was living with dementia.
“My mother had a long journey with dementia. By the end of it, it was really only by singing with her that we could maintain a meaningful contact,” Sally explains.
Sally found that singing songs which had been significant to her mother throughout her life helped her reconnect with old memories and brought her back to a place of comfort and familiarity amidst anxiety and unease.
When Sally’s mother passed away in 2012, Sally wrote a book about their family experience after her mother’s diagnosis with dementia.
“I researched a number of aspects of dementia and I began to look into the question of music that had been so helpful for us, and discovered it was a widespread, universal phenomenon,” Sally says.
It is recognised that music has a positive impact on dementia.
One 2018 report from the UK Commission on Dementia and Music states that music can benefit those with dementia by promoting social connection and restoring a sense of self, as dementia does not prevent the ability to connect with music.
Today, the NHS emphasises these benefits of music for those with dementia. However, Sally found that resources around how music can help those with dementia were non-existent in the UK during her mother’s time.
“Although there was research about the effect of music on the brain, there was very little connected to the actual effect on people with dementia,” Sally says.
Sally decided to fill this gap in the resources available in the UK.
In 2013, she founded Playlist For Life, which helps those with dementia create “the soundtrack to their life”.
These personalised playlists include tracks which trigger memories, such as familiar nursery rhymes, songs from first records, theme tunes to favourite TV shows, football anthems and more.
Seven years into this initiative, Playlist For Life has had a profound effect on many, and in 2020 won a GSK IMPACT award which recognises charities doing outstanding work to improve people’s health and wellbeing.
“It’s the families who get back to us and tell us that they have been able to connect with their loved one for the first time in a very long time,” Sally says.
One of the first couples who benefited from Playlist For Life in its early days was Harry, who was living with dementia, and his wife, Margaret.
While communication between the two had become difficult, Playlist For Life was a saving grace for them.
“We helped her to make a playlist for him, with pieces of music that had been most meaningful to them both, and she began to go and play it to him.
“Margaret said to us later that what that had done was restore him to her, the man that she married.
“Not in the fullest sense, of course, but she felt that instead of him just being
her patient, instead of her being a carer, she had become his wife again.
“They had restored that deep sense of marital connection that they had lost,” Sally adds.
The meaningful impact of Playlist For Life is also evident amongst the health and care professionals the charity trains up.
“Care homes who have been trained by us and had Playlist For Life intervention come to us and say, ‘We have cut down our medication bills for people here’, because instead doctors are now prescribing music,” Sally says.
At a time when family members of those living with dementia may feel as if they cannot connect with their loved ones, music provides a medium for them to do so.
Playlist For Life has made this possible for many families across the UK.
“It feels as if I’ve helped to make my mother’s suffering worth something,” Sally says.
“To know that through her love of singing, which was the essence of her, we have been able to give something beautiful to other people, and a means of making the very best of this condition – it’s a great feeling.” ■