Alive Inside - I Finally Saw It

For several years now, there's been lots of talk about a program called Music and Memory. This program was developed by a Social Worker named Dan Cohen, and encourages folks to provide music to older persons with a variety of diagnoses. This program was showcased in a film called, Alive Inside, and has introduced the concept of music as enrichment to millions of people.

I'm coming to watching this film a bit later than everyone else. Yesterday afternoon, I decided to see if I could find the film on YouTube so I could watch it during my long day at work. I found the film, subtitled in Portuguese (which I REALLY want to learn), and watched it from front to back.

I cried.

The film really spoke to me as a music therapist who has seen, first hand, the types of reactions and responses that were shown in the film. I was happy to see that others were seeing these reactions and were trying to do something about it. I mourned the fact that the filmmakers did not contrast the iPod program and results with those of music therapists who go deeper into these responses through careful and evidenced-based application of music and musical elements. The power of the iPod was evident, but there was little to no mention about the next step in the process.

I wonder about those loved ones who see this film and believe that using an iPod will change their family members into alert people who show less involvement with their diagnosis. I wonder what will happen if they don't see the same results that were demonstrated during the film.

I'm going to spend some more time thinking about all of this...

Happy Friday (a bit later than usual!!)