Lisa Boehlke saw the special effect music has on Alzheimer’s patients after her dad, Jim Roning, died of Alzheimer’s in 2012.
Now, she wants to bring that experience to her hometown of Hills with an Alzheimer’s music program at the Tuff Memorial Home.
“Those of you who knew him know what an amazing person he was,” Boehlke said about her father. “He enjoyed music, but he enjoyed visiting people at the Tuff Memorial Home.”
She said her dad lived at Tuff for a short time before his death, but she also remembers accompanying her father to the nursing home as a young child.
“I really enjoyed visiting there,” Boehlke said. “During my high school years I was employed as a Certified Nurses Aide.”
She said her program at the Tuff Home will involve music and possibly recordings of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings games and other memorable radio talk show programs.
Boehlke said she got the idea from the Hillcrest Nursing Home in Mankato where she worked for Alzheimers foundation on a program called Singing Hills Chorus.
It’s Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers who are the choir and they perform twice a year.
“It’s just beautiful,” Boehlke said. “Loving Hills as much as I do and knowing how much my dad loved it there too, my mom (Marjorie Roning) and I decided it would be a great idea to try to bring that to the nursing home.”
She said watching videos of Alzheimer’s patients responding to music is proof of how it works.
“Some people are completely catatonic; you put headphones on them and they listen to it and sing along,” Boehlke said.
“And for a short time after taking the headphones off you could even have a conversation with them again.”
Boehlke is asking people to donate to the music program at the Tuff Home.
“It will be used only for this purpose, and will be used to purchase music and music players for the nursing home residents to use at their request,” she said.
Activity Director at the Tuff Memorial Home, Jocelyn Jacoby said the music will be a good idea for residents.
“This program will benefit the residents greatly, because music is so therapeutic,” Jacoby said. “It brings back so many memories and helps with their mood in a positive way.”
She said it also helps connect listeners to their roots.
“Music is so important because it’s something everyone grew up with,” Jacoby said. “It’s so amazing to hear residents sing songs word for word without a book. They may not know what day it is but songs remain in their memory forever.”
Music helps people with Alzheimer’s disease. According to research, listening to or singing songs can provide emotional and behavioral benefits for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
Musical memories are often preserved in Alzheimer’s disease because key brain areas linked to musical memory are relatively undamaged by the disease.
To donate to the music program at the Tuff Home, contact Jacoby at Tuff or message Boekhle for her address or use Paypal at lisab1399@gmail.com.