On Friday, November 13 at 7:00PM, Ernest McBride High School is hosting a special screening of the award-winning documentary, Alive Inside. The film, directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett, follows the work of Dan Cohen, whose nonprofit Music & Memory, uses music to help patients suffering with Alzheimer’s Disease.
The screening will specifically help to raise funds to bring the “Adopt an Elder/Build a Bridge” inter-generational program to Long Beach through a partnership between McBride High School students, youth from Grace First Presbyterian Church and the patients and staff of Brittany House, an elder care facility in Long Beach. Rossato-Bennett will be on hand to speak with the audience.
The spark of this partnership began when Stan DeWitt and his wife Lynda sat together at home, watching the film on Netflix. Stan, the music minister for Grace First, was profoundly moved by the film.
“We were both in tears within the first five minutes,” DeWitt said. “There are so many moments in the film when you are brought into the minds and lives of the patients and their families, and every one of them rips you apart.”
DeWitt said that discussion in the film about the program expanding prompted their idea to contact the director.
“I sent an e-mail, and was shocked to get a positive response within a day,” DeWitt said. “He said he’d love to talk to us about the possibility of us doing a program in Long Beach.”
According to DeWitt, Rossato-Bennett’s Alive Inside Foundation was already in the process of establishing pilot “Adopt an Elder/Build a Bridge” programs at 10 sites across the nation. DeWitt and Grace First’s Interim Senior Pastor Pat Thompson met with Steve Rockenbach, principal at Ernest S. McBride, Sr. High School. The school has a Health and Medical Pathways program, so it was a natural fit for them.
“One of the fastest-growing health care sectors is care for the elderly,” Rockenback said. “As part of our effort to help our students grow, we help them find internships and workplace opportunities in the community.”
It was not a hard sell to get Colleen Rozatti, executive director of Brittany House, to participate in the pilot project.
“In general, music therapy has been proven to be an effective therapeutic tool used to reach even the most progressed Alzheimer resident,” Rozatti said. “Music as a whole can be used to communicate both verbally and non-verbally in all people, and we at Brittany House find that our residents benefit enormously from our ability to provide the opportunity for any and all musical components to our program.”
Rozatti has seen the impact that music therapy has on Alzheimer’s patients, helping them to recall memories that were thought to be lost.
“It can help them remember their greatest love, their parents, or the birth of their children and, in turn, can boost emotions that may otherwise be hidden by this disease,” said Rozatti. “We very much appreciate the opportunity the Alive Inside Foundation is giving our residents, and hope we can continue the widespread success of such a valuable community-driven outreach program.”
DeWitt said the students will receive specific training, which includes a sensory deprivation empathy component.
“This will help the kids understand the problems associated with aging and Alzheimer’s disease,” said DeWitt. “After the training, we pair up two youth with one senior. They have a set of things they have to find out from the patient, their families or their caregivers: what kind of music did that person connect with when they are younger? The Alive Inside Foundation calls it ‘detective work.'”
DeWitt has not been sitting idle, helping to purchase computers for the church, the high school and Brittany House. They’ll be used to make playlists and track data on the project.
“The Alive Inside Foundation is providing us with all of the listening devices,” DeWitt explained. “Then, we take them back to the patients, let them listen, and see if there is a response. The kids may go back a third or fourth time to try and hone the listening list.”
DeWitt admits that the goal of the program goes beyond just awakening the patients.
“It is to connect the youth and seniors, which is why they call it their Bridge program.”
Students, working with teachers and health care providers, will be creating extensive documentation.
“We are filming every meeting, and we are asking the kids to journal all of it, too. The folks from the Alive Inside Foundation are talking about using some of the footage to put together a short like the one from Healdsburg. They’ll be filming when they come out on the 13th, too.”
The pilot program will start with 10 youth from the church, and 20 kids from the high school, paired with 15 elders. This will, hopefully, lead to the program expanding significantly throughout the city.
“The film goes into great detail about the nature of the Alzheimer’s Disease problem we are facing as a society,” DeWitt said. “Baby Boomers are getting older, health care costs are going up, and AD and dementia are markedly on the rise. By 2030, we’re going to be in serious trouble unless a treatment or cure is found. Currently there is no cure and no effective treatment that I am aware of.”
DeWitt expects the program to continue, and expand, next year.
“The outpouring of people who have said they would like to be involved has been really great,” DeWitt said. “There is something kind of magical going on with this. The way things have fallen into place, etc. It really feels like it is meant to be.”
Advance tickets are $15, and are available at AliveInside.org/LongBeach. At the door, tickets will be $20. The screening will take place at 7:00PM at McBride High School, which is located at 7025 East Parkcrest Street, just south of Carson Street and just East of Los Coyotes Diagonal.
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