Activities used by the music therapist are presented. Music helps create a wide range of responses with elderly. It maybe simulative or sedative, may improve memory, can help with associations, and is a stimulus for reminiscence. National Association for Music Therapy. Journal of Music Therapy.
Reminiscence is the process of reviving past events and experience.
This article discusses how music has the ability to help patients suffering from pain or patients who have poor memory. A study at Beth Israel Hospital shows that music can serve as well as or better than sedation to relieve pain. Music helped evoke long forgotten memories of 40 Alzheimer and dementia patients in the study by Beth Abraham Health Services. Music can be used with Alzheimer's Disease Patients to retrieve memory. Music therapy with dementia patients also helps with relaxation.