Students making a difference with memory loss patients at Barton

We all have certain songs that bring back vivid memories—a first crush, a family vacation, or even just riding in the car with friends. Why does music form such strong associations?

Research shows that people with dementia will respond to familiar songs from their past helps them regain memories from when they first heard that song. Even for persons with severe dementia, music can tap deep emotional recall. For individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s, memory for things—names, places, facts—is compromised, but memories from our teenage years can be well-preserved.

Two students from South Tahoe High are helping the patients at the Barton Skilled Nursing Center trigger those memories by bringing them the program, Music & Memory. Sarah Smith and Emily Doyle, who are also sisters, spend Tuesdays at Barton where they download music onto iPods and then give them to the patients.

Studies show that favorite music or songs associated with important personal events can trigger memory of lyrics and the experience connected to the music. Beloved music often calms chaotic brain activity and enables the listener to focus on the present moment and regain a connection to others.

It's because of these studies being published that let Sarah to getting the program started in South Lake Tahoe. She is part of National Honor Society and Leadership at South Tahoe High, and wanted to do a project for those two programs. Under the guidance of the Memory & Music program at UC Davis, Sarah, with the help of sister Emily, have been able to download music for the patients onto 16 iPods.

Staff from the nursing center will hand out playlists to the patients. Family members, or the patients themselves since not all have dementia, will help fill them out with songs they'd like to hear. Sarah and Emily will then load those playlists onto the patient's iPod. Walking by the patients' rooms one might here singing with no music, and that's because each iPod has an earpiece, so they can hear it but nobody else can.

"It's nice to come here and see how happy people get with our music," said Sarah.

The patients are very excited when Tuesdays roll around, and the girls stop by with their music. They have only missed one week since starting in January, and patients noticed.

"Darrick is my favorite," said Emily. "He'll always say 'see you next week'!" He was their first customer and came back the following week with a stack of CDs and the sisters have been loading them ever since.

"Makes me feel happy and brings back lots of memories," said Darrick, the girls' main customer.

The most popular artists of the patients are Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, Barbara Streisand and Tammy Wynette. Even though the pair are musicians, there have been some artists and songs requested by the patients that they don't know. They just added Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn songs to their collection of over 3,000 songs. Since the program works best when giving the patients music from when they were 18-25 years of age, the music of the 1950s and 60s are requested often.

Since not even half of the 44 patients at the Skilled Nursing Center have received the loaded iPods, the girls are looking for donations of iPods, a computer to help them speed up the process and iTunes gift cards. Old iPhones and Shuffles work too as long as they are able to play music on them.

Since both girls are juniors and will be going to college in another year, they want to be able to train other volunteers to learn the process so it continues after they're gone.

For more information, or to donate the needed items, contact the front desk at the hospital or Madonna Doyle at 530.307.3495.