– Welcome everyone to Answers for Elders Radio Network. And we are coming to you, obviously, from the great Pacific Northwest, but we love reaching out to people across the United States and I am telling all of our listeners right now we have such an incredible program that is going to hopefully fill your soul today. And the reason why I know it will is because we all know the power of music. And for those of you that are loyal listeners, we have talked a lot about how music transforms people’s lives, especially you know, I don’t care if you’re caring for a loved one, if you’re in a situation of depression, anxiety, loneliness, any sort of things like Parkinson’s disease, or dementia and Alzheimer’s. And so when I find these jewel people around the United States, it’s very exciting for me to bring these people forward. And today for all of you that are listening today, it’s a very, very wonderful treat. We are here with the founder of an organization called Music Mends Minds, and the founder’s name, of course is Ms. Carol Rosenstein, and I am so glad to have you on the show. Carol, it’s such an honor. Thank you for being with us.
– And thank you, Suzanne. This is as special for me as it appears to be for you.
– Well it is, and you know you are such a trailblazer and we’ve talked before about how both of our backgrounds of caring for a loved one kind of propelled us toward creating an impassioned mission. and you know, and you know with me it was to help support families and caregivers, but you’ve taken it to this whole other level of helping to develop music for those that are maybe need a lift for those that are seniors that are over So Carol, tell us a little bit in this first segment about your background and how and why Music Mends Minds was formed.
– Thank you, Suzanne. Yes, my background is in mind/body medicine. So I’ve worked holistically all my life, because the mind and the body are inextricably one, and so that truly brings to me an important approach in treating the whole person. But the story about music and the brain has changed in the last 72 hours. So I give you my current story, yesterday…
– And then you’re going to give us a breakthrough info?
– Yes. Music Mends Minds has our own podcast series, and we interview experts from around the world for our segment called Music is Medicine, Ask the Expert. So our recent researcher, Dr Concetta Tomaino from the East Coast, Zoomed in and her story goes like this. In 1992 she was a newly graduated music therapist. She was summoned to a local facility of end-stage dementia patients. The facility said, come and entertain our people. They are “the water and feeding group” because their brains are gone. She showed up in a communal area flanked by dementia patients that were in wheelchairs, some with mittens and their hands secured so that they couldn’t get out of the wheel chair, others that were standing around in catatonic states, and she started to play the piano, while the staff listened on. Within seconds, these “water and feeding groups,” because their brains were “gone,” started singing, mouthing, and moving to the music. I was so transfixed by her story, because that goes back to the seed of what Music Mends Minds is about, and how important her legacy is, to now be 40 years later, with 6,000 music therapists in over 68 countries administering music to the sick. Not only about neuro-degenerative diseases, but the PTSDs, mentally challenged, on and on and on. Now stroke people. I wanted to just open up with that alarming story, which really changes my story. It is important, which I’m about to tell you now. So it just is so important to understand music is medicine for the mind, regardless of what ails you.
– And so my story: My precious Irwin, who is now gone almost two years, had Parkinson’s and dementia. We lived this journey for 15 years. Ten years into the journey, before I had my Music Mends Minds moment, and the power of music, he had medication issues. As a Parkinsonian patient, he was taking his dopamine that was synthetic several times a day. His brain was on overload. He was hallucinating, he was agitated. We were living with hundreds of people in our house. He was just out of sorts completely. A call to Dr Bronstein, our neurologist, reported these clinical findings, and Jeff said, it’s the dopamine, Carol. The brain is on overload. Bring down the dose. Well, for any of you out there knowing about dopamine and Parkinson’s, you know that your beloved becomes a wet noodle from a dry-out. He literally had the rug pulled out from under him. So. here we were. The hallucinations were gone, the agitation was gone, but my guy was spent. He played the piano socially, sitting at the piano, as a wet noodle. I would see him become a dry one. Within five, ten minutes he had re-entered the environment as if I had given him a dose of med. And seeing this repeatedly, and with my clinical eye, I ran back to the telephone to Dr Bronstein, and said, well, what am I watching this is crazy. And he said, Carol — I never forget the moment — we’re watching the power of music changing brain chemistry. What? I said, can I get a few like-minded souls and let’s jam and make music together and have all of them respond like I see my darling, Irwin, do? He says yes. And that’s when everything started to change in my household, and in many many other households. Because I called for a launch. Thirty strangers arrived at a local private school in their music studio. They had the Steinway piano and the drum kit and a wall full of instruments for any kid to choose whatever they want for the session. And here thirty people gathered. One of them went to the Steinway piano, another to the drum kit as a drummer. My husband took a saxophone off the wall, and Sam opened up his jacket pocket and pulled out a harmonica out of his jacket pocket, and before you knew it, 15 minutes later, these total strangers, all with our diagnoses, were joined at the hip making music together. That was the start of the Fifth Dementia band.
– I love it and I remember learning about that somewhere. I think it’s in your history on your website, and you know understanding the core things about how you’ve accomplished what you have done. And now fast forward, you have an organization called Music Mends Minds and really, you have a wonderful way of connecting seniors all across the United States. So we’re going to talk a little bit about that this hour, but could you briefly give us an overview — before we go to our next segment — of what you do?
– We have a partnership with Rotary International that doesn’t take us only local, or national, but global. I had an amazing, lucky break with a story in a Rotary magazine in the May 2022 edition with a seven page story and me on the cover, and we went viral and global. So I sit at my computer all day with a staff mostly UCLA student-administers distance-Zooming in and we are sending seeds out to Rotary clubs and other facilities as to how they can start a musical group through their organizations into their neighborhoods to reach the seniors who need the music. Because music is medicine, and changed their lives.
– Absolutely so, Carol, We’re going to talk about it this hour, but in the meantime, for anyone that’s interested about Music Mends Minds, how do we reach you?
– We have a website at https://www.musicmendsminds.org/. I have a phone number that I’m happy to give if it’s appropriate, (818) 326-0500, and you can text me, call me, or send me an email, and we will help you start a music group in your area. And if you even want to, you can be a volunteer.
– Fabulous move this machine. We’re going to talk a lot more about this in our next segment right after this.
