Use of Music Therapy in Dementia

Running head: ORAL PRESENTATION
ORAL PRESENTATION
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

Oral Presentation1
PART A
ORAL PRESENTATION
Topic: Use of music therapy in Dementia
Recently, I got my placement in Concord hospital, mental health unit, and my PEP subject is the
use of music therapy in Dementia. Within a few days of my placement at the mental health unit, I
encountered an old patient named Mr John (for the sake of confidentiality, the original name is
suppressed). He was 65 years of old, male and a resident of Sydney Australia. His spouse was along
with the patient during admission and I had a discussion with his wife to get more details about the
patient. As per his wife, he was a normal person some seven years back when he retired from the job. He
developed mental illness slowly and his present condition compelled her to bring him to the hospital for
treatment. The spouse reported that his husband was suffering from the loss of memory very often. He
was also having the following symptoms like difficulty communicating or finding words, difficulty
reasoning or problem-solving, difficulty with planning, organizing and coordinating things. The
psychological changes observed in behaviour of the patient is depression, anxiety, inappropriate
behaviour etc. When he was admitted he was not talking to anybody, he was visibly angry for being
moved to the hospital.
The doctor who was attending the patient conducted a number of tests on neurological evaluation
like evaluation of memory, language, visual perception, attention, problem-solving, movement, senses,
balance and reflexes. He prescribed blood tests for vitamin B12 deficiency. He diagnosed the patient
suffering from Alzheimer’s disease a type of dementia.
Pathophysiology:
The cause of Dementia may be a sequence of several diseases and events. However, the
particular reason for this is in general, degradation of brain cells, whether biologically or externally.
Dementia can be caused due to the inherited effects, life style and the environmental factors.
Infection, like Creutzfeldt-Jakob, and blood vessels narrowing and damaging the brain, maybe
some biological reasons for diseases which cause dementia. Genetic factors, such as Huntington's and
possibly Alzheimer's diseases (Betterhelp.com, 2018), can also be responsible for developing these
diseases. Though these diseases have different roots, they all have one thing in common, they damage
the brain causing dementia which can be diagnosed through a change of mood, behaviour and cognitive
impairment symptoms. This happens due to the destruction of brain cells by these ailments
(Betterhelp.com, 2018).