Carol Rosenstein, the founder of Music Mends Minds, joins Suzanne to talk about how music transforms people's lives, particularly those suffering from Parkinson's disease, dementia, or Alzheimer's.
Carol was deeply affected by this story: “In 1992, Dr. Concerto Tomano was a newly graduated music therapist. She was summoned to a local facility of end-stage dementia patients. The facility said, come and entertain our people. They are "the water and feeding group" because their brains are gone. She showed up in a communal area flanked by dementia patients that were in wheelchairs, some with mittens and their hands secured so that they couldn't get out of the wheelchair, others that were standing around in catatonic states, and she started to play the piano. Within seconds, these people started singing, mouthing, and moving to the music.
“I was so transfixed by her story. My precious Owen, who is now gone almost two years, had Parkinson's and dementia. Ten years into the journey, he had medication issues. As a Parkinsonian patient, he was taking synthetic dopamine several times a day. His brain was on overload. He was hallucinating, he was agitated. Our neurologist read these clinical findings, and said, it's the dopamine, Carol, bring down the dose. You know that your beloved becomes a wet noodle – the hallucinations were gone, the agitation was gone, but my guy was spent. He played the piano socially, sitting at the piano, as a wet noodle. I would see him become a dry one. Within five, ten minutes he had re-entered the environment as if I had given him a dose of med. And seeing this repeatedly, and with my clinical eye, I told the doctor, and he said that we're watching the power of music changing brain chemistry.
“I said, can I get a few like-minded souls and let's jam and make music together and have all of them respond? He says yes. And that's when everything started to change in my household, and in many many other households. Because I called for a launch. Thirty strangers arrived at a local private school in their music studio. They had the Steinway piano and the drum kit and a wall full of instruments for any kid to choose whatever they want for the session. And here thirty people gathered. One of them went to the Steinway piano, another to the drum kit as a drummer. My husband took a saxophone off the wall, and Sam opened up his jacket pocket and pulled out a harmonica out of his jacket pocket, and before you knew it, 15 minutes later, these total strangers, all with our diagnoses, were joined at the hip making music together. That was the start of the Fifth Dementia band.
“It just is so important to understand music is medicine for the mind, regardless of what ails you. We have a partnership with Rotary International that takes us global. ''Rotary'' magazine featured us in the May 2022 edition with a seven page story and me on the cover. So we reach out to share with people how they can start a musical group through their organizations to reach the seniors who need the music. Because music is medicine, and changed their lives.”
Learn more at https://www.musicmendsminds.org/. You can also text or call (818) 326- 0500.
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