Sentimental Sunday: October 21, 2016

I am starting to think that my random number generator is a bit biased towards the posts I wrote in 2016 since this is the second number spat out in two weeks that came from that particular year. Today's sentimental post comes from October 21, 2016. 

On October 20th, I had a long day at work where I just had to sit in my room by myself. As a result, I was looking for some things to keep myself occupied, and I looked for the movie Alive Inside - you know the one - the one with Henry who changes when he gets to listen to an iPod filled with music that he knows. It was the first and only time I have watched that movie. Once was enough to get the general idea of the movie and to come up with my personal opinion about it. Read a little bit about my opinion on the post at this link.

I think the issues that so many of us have with this particular movie is that it seems to promise that an iPod will wake up our loved ones and restore them to communicate with us. We music therapists know that is not always the case. There are times when our loved ones do not respond to the iPods or to the music or to us. Putting a set of headphones on someone does not guarantee that they will respond by talking to us or singing along to the music.

The other side of this movie is that it could be interpreted (and, we know, it HAS been interpreted) as an alternative to having a live music therapist present to provide this therapeutic modality to clients. I choose to think of it as a way to gain access to clients instead of as an alternative to music therapy. This is an attitude that I have held for a very long time - give them a bit of music and then show them the difference when music therapy becomes a part of the interaction.

I do not work with older adults, so I do not often have people talk about this movie. I would hope that I would be able to persuade caregivers and people making money decisions that an iPod program is a good first step but that a live music therapist would add so much more to the clients' qualities of life. I've been pretty persuasive with those who control budgets in my population of choice, so I think I could be pretty persuasive with another population. I will probably never know, though.

I have added a couple of pictures of my "creative"project from yesterday - the first picture includes the parts and pieces that went into making the second picture - my new bar stool for my office space. I had to stop after one stool because I keep pulling muscles and tendons and ligaments in my joints. My hands hurt after using the allen wrench. It only took me about 30 minutes to get this project finished, so I am looking forward to getting the other one put together. My only complaint is that the stool is a bit taller than the top of the desk, but I can raise the desktop with little to no effort to get the knee room that I want. Some 2 inch blocks will suffice to raise the desk.

That's been the overview of my weekend so far. See you all tomorrow...