Can you believe it’s almost time for Labor Day? Labor Day is the first Monday of September. This holiday was originally created in 1882 to celebrate organized labor. It’s difficult to believe now, but efforts by organized labor have brought us the 40-hour work week, minimum age requirements for employment, overtime pay, safety regulations, and…

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Tired of scrolling through social media? Can’t find anything on TV, and you’ve finished binge watching all of Netflix too? How about some live music? We’ve searched far and wide for the best online concerts and live streams the internet has to offer during this unprecedented period of time when all the performers have to…

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Three football players in uniforms and helmets, with a referee in the background.

It’s true – there aren’t many singable songs about football. Nothing as great as “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,”  for sure. The song “You Gotta Be A Football Hero” is one option, but having been written in 1933, the lyrics are a bit outdated for many of us living in the 21st century. Jock…

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Alice Grandon playing her accordion

I met Alice Grandon at North Point Nursing Home. She was playing her accordion for the residents there, as she often has done since the facility first opened in 1995 as the Louisburg Care Center. Her performance that day was dynamic and engaging. You could tell just by watching that Grandon plays for the residents…

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This post is about music therapy for older adults. If you love both of those – music therapy and older adults – then I am calling on you to be an advocate, to help more older adults have access to meaningful, therapeutic music experiences. We can all be advocates by using our voices and energy…

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Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease or a related dementia is this: When the person with dementia starts needing help with their activities of daily living (ADLs). ADLs are the basic tasks like dressing, bathing, eating, and walking that healthy adults can accomplish with little thought. For…

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Is it music therapy? Say you walk by a room in a hospital, and you see a person lying in bed, and a woman sitting next to her, singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” while strumming a guitar. Maybe you think, “oh, how lovely. Music is so relaxing!” Or maybe you pass the activity room in…

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I have to start this post with a confession. A while ago, I had a music therapy client request the song “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” I had known the song for a while, but when I looked up the lyrics this time around, I noticed that the composer listed was Thomas Dorsey. “Huh,” I…

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