It's all about musical entertainment for senior citizens wherever they are. Senior citizen entertainment is a specialty. Here are tips, information, and useful links.

Dementia and Alzheimer's Patients
need entertainment too.

Dementia is a deterioration of intellectual faculties, such as memory, concentration, and judgment, resulting from an organic disease or a disorder of the brain. It's sometimes accompanied by emotional disturbance and personality changes.

Alzheimer's syndrome is a progressive form of presenile dementia that is similar to senile dementia except that it usually starts in the 40s or 50s. The first symptoms are impaired memory which is followed by impaired thought and speech and finally complete helplessness.
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Now that we understand what is going on mentally with the residents of the facility that we are going to entertain in, how do we approach them?

Keep it simple for starters. Members of his group can be easily agitated and confused.

The thing that works best for songs are the old ones that they knew when they were young so...old time sing-a-longs are the best.

I like to use their names often during the show to "wake them up".

I mean that sometimes I literally have to arouse them from sleep. The best entertainers have had dementia residents fall asleep 5 feet away from them during the height of the excitement of a show.

The more that you can get them to interact and clap hands or sing a chorus or dance, the better.
The dancing part has to be supervised by a nurse or activity person as many of the residents would keel over because they don't realize that they can't dance without falling.

The more interaction the better. I have had repeat monthly morning bookings at a facility because I was able to "Get them going" when other entertainers couldn't.