November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month, and a Chatham senior care facility is locally spearheading a countrywide effort to use music as a way of sparking brain activity in patients with memory challenges.

“Music & Memory is a national program, which really advocates personalized music playlists for individuals often suffering from memory disorders,” said Amy Gorely, director of strategic initiatives and outreach for for Carolina Meadows Continuing Care Retirement Community, located in the Chatham County area of Chapel Hill.

Music is very personal, and often tied to really strong emotions and memories, as studies have shown.

“They found that music doesn’t live, actually, in one part of the brain,” said Gorely. “And so those that have memory impairment, when they listen to music, they often can connect back with the memories, and the feelings, and they joy that comes from hearing that music that’s really personal to them.”

The staff at Carolina Meadows is bringing back all those good feelings by creating personalized playlists on iPods.

According to Gorely, they’ve noticed that when patients listen to some of their old favorite tunes, they’re likely to communicate a little better, and remember things more clearly afterward.

Obviously, it’s a challenge to assemble such a playlist for someone who’s memory-impaired. That’s where families, spouses, and especially, alert staff members can be very helpful.

“They have music playing, and they know which residents like which kind of music,” said Gorely. “And you might know from their past that they had been in a choir, or they’d been active in a church.”

The iPods used for the project so far were all purchased by Carolina Meadows, and Gorely said they’re being shared with other elder-care facilities.

“By buying a lot of them, I was hopeful that we might get a discount from Apple,” said Gorely. “But I was not able to get that yet.”

As a sponsor, Carolina Meadows also encouraged staff members at facilities across the county to get certified to participate in the national Music & Memory Initiative.

Gorely said she hopes to see an iPod loan program, funded through the Council on Aging in Chatham and the Department on Aging in Orange start operating next year, for those caring for the elderly in their homes.

In the meantime, you can help.

“We’ve been doing kind-of-informal iPod drives,” said Gorely. “So anybody out there that might have iPods lying around their house, and now have all their music on their phones, and they might not need those iPods – we could greatly use them.”

The Orange County Department on Aging, and the Chatham County Council on Aging are collecting those, if you’d like to donate.

So, you may wonder what song is the biggest hit these days at local senior care facilities.

According to Gorely, Glenn Miller is still the man.

“The Chattanooga Choo-Choo…” she sang for a few seconds, and then added with a laugh: “That’s a popular one around here.”

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