[title subtitle=”words and images: Alicia Agent, Director Marketing Communications Baptist Health – Fort Smith”][/title]
Most can attest to the fact that a good song can take you back every time you hear it. Whether it’s for the good times or the bad, it is there; stuck in your brain along with all the other songs that make up the “mixtape” of your life. From first loves and fantastic concerts to church choirs and school musicals, it’s all about connecting with a melody that triggers a memory.
Making that connection is especially important for Mandy Kuykendall, a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist, whose goal is to help her patients express themselves and engage with others through therapeutic activities during their stay at Baptist Health Senior Care Behavioral Health- Fort Smith, a twenty-three-bed inpatient unit dedicated to patients over the age of fifty-five who often suffer from the early stages of dementia.
Kuykendall joined Baptist Health-Fort Smith last December. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Parks and Recreation Administration with an emphasis in Therapeutic Recreation from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. She has worked in therapeutic recreation for fourteen years, with much of that time focused on psychiatric mental health. At Baptist Health Senior Care Behavioral Health-Fort Smith, Kuykendall organizes daily therapeutic group activities such as stretching, singing, games and crafts to provide cognitive and sensory stimulation.
“As patients are admitted to Senior Care, I assess their physical and mental needs, experience and interests, in order to provide the best recovery to their well-being,” she said. Kuykendall recently added a Music Pharmacy to her group therapy sessions thanks to Musicians On Call, a national nonprofit that gives patients access to the healing power of music. After hearing about the organization on a local radio station, she applied for the free program and received three Amazon Fire tablets with access to Pandora radio and three pairs of Bose headphones to use during activities with the patients in the senior care unit.
Studies have shown music can reduce agitation and improve behavioral issues that are common in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Even in late stages of the disease, a person may be able to tap a beat or sing lyrics from a song from their youth, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
You can often find Mandy playing her guitar and singing with patients. When the music begins, a familiar hymn to most, the energy of the room changes. A tired finger taps the arm rest of a wheel chair. Lips begin to recall familiar lyrics. It doesn’t feel like a hospital anymore. It feels a little more like home. Even the nursing staff sings along as they go about their daily tasks.
“Music is a common bond for our patients,” Kuykendall said. “Some will begin to remember concerts they attended when they were younger and start telling stories to each other. I love it when they sing along and share that it has been many years since they’ve heard the song.”
Each tablet in the Music Pharmacy has custom mixtapes with names like Prescription Strength, Chill Refill and Dose of Joy, that feature music promoting positivity and healing for the hospital environment, according to Musicians On Call. Kuykendall says some of her patients’ favorites include Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, The Mamas and the Papas, gospel and anything disco. “Giving them a choice of the genre really gives them a sense of active participation in our activities,” Kuykendall said.
The ability to experience pleasure is one of the last cognitive functions to go in dementia patients, according to Crystal Lougin, MS, LPC, Director of Behavioral Health at Baptist Health-Fort Smith. She recalls a patient who once had trouble speaking in sentences but could happily sing a couple lines of a song he remembered. It’s through Lougin’s firsthand experience of the herapeutic activity and its impact on patients and staff that she is a firm believer in music as a universal language.
“The unique dynamic to see on Senior Care is how it bridges the generational gap between our treatment team and the patients we serve,” Lougin said. “Most of our patients are of that Baby Boomer generation, so it is amazing to observe them having the same emotional experience and reaction to a song that our staff members from the Millennial generation have. Adding the Music Pharmacy to our curriculum truly does foster the therapeutic relationship necessary to see progress in an aging patient population.”
Baptist Health Family and Pediatric Clinic-Ellsworth Road
5428 Ellsworth Road, Fort Smith, Arkansas
479.709.7440
