Alive Inside

Today I saw the Michael Rossato-Bennett documentary Alive Inside.

Social worker Dan Cohen was commuting to work one day when he heard a story on the radio about iPods. This made him consider that it may be helpful to use the music players with some of his eldery clients in the nursing homes where he was assigned.

Soon, lives were being changed.

Dan began loading the residents' favorite songs onto iPods and saw evidence of the soul waking. Patients with dementia that never interacted with people began making eye contact, singing and dancing. Memories came alive and they began sharing them. The caretakers were stunned by their responsiveness.

Famed neurologist Oliver Sacks appears in the film to help explain why music can ignite parts of the brain that simple dialog cannot. Apparently we begin hearing music in the earliest days of our formation as embryos, and music bypasses other parts of the brain that fail when humans are stricken with ailments such as Alzheimer's.

Music allows patients to connect with the world in ways that may have gone dark for several years prior. Cohen soon sees the depth of positivity this is bringing to the nursing home community and begins a crusade to bring iPods to all U.S. nursing homes.

At first he is met with resistance (how can something considered a luxury be equated as medicine?), but soon transforms several communities and the groundswell for change begins.

The result is a nonprofit he founded called Music & Memory. The organization gathers donations of iPods, then trains students to go into the nursing homes and work with the residents to develop their ideal playlist.

His work reminds us that a little change in our way of thinking about therapy and treatment can make a world of difference.

This film will tug at your heart—and then leave you scrambling to find out how you can help.

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