ical Director for Silverado Lake Zurich, partnered with Northwestern University and the Institute for Therapy Through the Arts to explore how a music program might be leveraged to support future treatments of dementia. Over the course of a 12-week program, researchers looked to see whether music might help residents to become less agitated, have better cognitive function, show improved mood, or be more engaged with their surroundings. The outcomes were startling to Silverado


Family Ambassador Mary Seaberg. “By the second session, the residents were standing up and wanting to dance, tapping their toes and singing their songs,” she said. As the pro- gram progressed, “the residents started really looking forward to Saturday. These are indi- viduals who all have some form on memory impairment, and yet they would remember: On Saturday there’s music. It was amazing.” The exercise helped cement her belief that


the arts should be even more deeply embed- ded in the routines of senior living. “We have drum circles, we take our residents out to the ballet and the symphony,” she said. “We all need to make that a part of what we do every single day.”


“It helps them to feel useful when they can do these things that they use to do – and it doesn’t feel like therapy. We have a physical therapy department, but with this it doesn’t feel like work. They get up and exercise, they move around, and it just feels like fun.”


At Brookdale Arlington, an senior living


and memory care community in Virginia with 143 residents, Resident Program Coordinator Laurie Molson is developing a program in partnership with AFTA. She comes to the task with some experience, having spent the pre- vious two decades promoting arts activities at an adult day care center in Washington, D.C. “They would bring in artists who were


very hands on. With our Alzheimer’s and dementia care group, they were able to stimulate them with movement, with sing- ing or playing drums. They were able to reach a lot of people in that way,” she said. “Participants with dementia typically didn’t engage in much activity, they wouldn’t do arts and crafts or trivia activities. But when


they heard music from their generation, suddenly you saw them tap their foot, clap their hands, even sing their songs when normally they couldn’t even put sentences together. They couldn’t tell us when they were hungry, but when they heard a familiar song, they were able to sing along.” With that experience in mind, Molson


came to Brookdale in December 2017 look- ing to implement similar programs. One of her first moves was to bring in violinist An- thony Hyatt for an event that went beyond the usual afternoon-concert routine. “We have tons of entertainers come in


but that’s all they are – entertainers. My res- idents will sit there like they are at a concert, they clap when it’s appropriate, but they don’t really get engaged,” she said. Hyatt took it to another level. “He will


ask them, what song do you want to hear? He talks to them about the history of the music. He moves around the room and gets people to sing and dance,” she said. Molson followed up with a blues singer and continues to explore further such events. “The residents are enthusiastic about this new kind of programming. They like being able to get up and dance, to show the fun side of themselves,” she said. It’s not all just fun and games, though:


Orchard Park residents engaging with the team from Institute for Therapy for the Arts. Photo credit: Silverado


There’s an observable therapeutic impact. “It helps them to feel useful when they can do these things that they use to do – and it doesn’t feel like therapy. We have a physical therapy department, but with this it doesn’t feel like work. They get up and exercise, they move around, and it just feels like fun,” she said. “Now it’s something they want to do. No one is making them get up and dance.” It takes effort to line up outside musicians and artists, and of course there’s some cost involved, but Molson sees a number of good reasons for reaching out to the professional


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