Why Is Music Therapy Important?

Music can play such a pivotal role in anyone’s life. It ties people to memories, evokes strong emotions and can even motivate a listener to take action. With adults in home senior care, it is especially important in adding to the quality of life. Often the emotional or mental well-being of a person is not considered in favor of much more pressing needs. While a person’s physical health is obviously important, here are the many ways music therapy can bridge the gap to happiness and satisfaction in daily life.

Speech Retention

Beyond lifting someone’s mood, music therapy can actually help someone in care services retain their speech patterns: even after a stroke or while suffering from dementia. It’s a bit of a phenomena that as people in senior home care lose their ability to speak or even remember, they are still able to belt out their favorite song from the teenager days. Applying some sort of physical activity to the music, such as clapping to the beat or performing some sort of light exercise to the rhythm, can remind the elderly person of the patterns while speaking.

Clearer Thinking
Normally the elderly in home health care don’t just remember the words to their favorite song, they also typically remember what was happening when it was popular or why they bonded with it so powerfully. This starts conversation with caretakers and encourages further bonds with the people around them. It also puts the past into context with the present and can connect the two in a way that both workers in a home care service and the elderly could never imagine. Often music can be used in combination with another sense, such as smelling their favorite dessert from childhood, to gain cognitive functions through the use of sensory