The Power to Transport

About this episode

Professor Ellen McCreedy discusses her research on using personalized music playlists to help ease dementia symptoms in nursing home patients.

We all understand the power a song can have to recall vivid memories, seemingly sending us back in time. Professor Ellen McCreedy is a musician whose gerontology research harnesses music’s power to recall memories. She’s testing an intervention that brings personalized music playlists to nursing homes in order to help ease dementia symptoms for patients, without using medication. Driven to give dementia sufferers—and their caregivers—moments of having themselves back again, McCreedy joined Humans in Public Health to discuss her work, its challenges and the grandmother who originally inspired her.

People in this episode

Host: Humans in Public Health

Guest: Ellen McCreedy

Topics covered

• music therapy
• dementia
• gerontology
• memory recall
• nursing homes

Keywords

• music
• dementia
• memory
• intervention
• nursing homes
• gerontology
• caregivers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Humans in Public Health, Brown University School of Public Health

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