by Fred Leavitt
Four members of the Primal Connection arrive at Lake Placid Health Care in force.  We are carrying a djune-djune, conga, three dumbeks, 12 Paddle Drums and dozens of hand percussion instruments.  We are there to start a pilot program using the drum as therapy in treating level three Alzheimer’s patients.  I read all the material I could find on the web about the subject but I still did not know what to expect or what I was going to do when I came face to face with a room full of Alzheimer’s patients.

Going through a maze of corridors we end up in a small glassed in dining room, where two hallways meet.  The tables are pushed to the side and in the center of the room are a dozen people, all in wheelchairs; most of them were slumped over and unalert.  I was alarmed.  These people could not hold drums, even Paddle Drums, let alone play them.  One lady was blind, another deaf.  One man had disfigured arms and a number of patients were strapped in their wheelchairs to prevent them from falling out.

 There was very little interest shown as we unpacked and set up instruments.  Donna Lee started a base African rhythm on the djune-djune, and I joined her playing polyrhythms on a conga.  Gail and Malka first demonstrated then placed shakers, rattles, jingle sticks, maracas and other small instruments in the hands of the patients. The response was minimal at first but as Donna and myself started to lay down the groove with force the room filled with the beat of the drum and things started happening.

 Heads came up.  People started playing their instruments.  I smiled and started to verbally scat watching people come alive and smile back.  The blind woman known for her cantankerous nature started to sing. Another woman strapped in her wheelchair used her mallet to play my backside every time I came close to her.  The room starting filling with joy.

 Staff and patients alike were gathering in the hallway to watch through the glass wall.  Some of the staff started dancing.  A hundred year old woman was wheeled down the hallway to see what was happening. We tried to coax her in but she would not come.  We left the door open.  In due time, she was so taken by the drum music that she got up from her wheelchair and danced!   

When it was over patients who struggled to hold small instruments did not want to let go of them.  What I expected to be a ten minute session lasted over 30 minutes.  One woman said. Thank you for playing so deep and another quietly said hooray.

In a debriefing with Dorothy Gorman, the Activities Director, I learned that we were not working with Alzheimer’s but assisted care nursing home and dementia patients.  Somehow we got our wires crossed.  They wanted us back to work with the same group because of all the positive results they saw in the patients, combined with the disappointment the patients would feel if we didn’t return.  Who could refuse?  We came back.

On our fourth visit it was decided we would do both groups.  We would do the Alzheimer’s patients first because they typically had a short attention span and no activity held their interest for more then five minutes.

This time we were led through locked and guarded doors to ‘Happy Trails” the secure area of the institution and into another room with glass walls.  There were about eight round tables and 12-15 people seated at them.  They were elderly and dressed in street clothes.  My first impression was that the people were watching TV but a quick glance around the room established that there was no TV, besides they were all staring in different directions.

We used the same approach with the djune-djune and conga but this time we had Native American rattles made by Chief Walking Bear (http://www.allnativedrums.com).  They are lightweight and have handles wrapped in soft deer hide. 

We started playing the drums while instruments were being passed out.  Nothing happened for the first minute or two.  We played harder.  Faces started turning toward us and we could see the lights coming on in their eyes.  Smiles appeared, rattles started shaking and other percussion instruments were picked up and played.  One patient came in dancing supported by a staff member.  Another man started playing the extra Tubano drum we had and ended up playing it straight for 15 minutes.  Then he stopped and went back into a trance like state

The five minute session turned into twenty minutes.  In that room were all levels of Alzheimer’s patients from Stage One to State Six.    They all responded in one way or another.  Two patients seemed upset.  One held her hands over her ears and the other frowned and made it clear that she didn’t like the idea.  The interesting thing about this is the woman who frowned was tapping her feet and toward the end of the session both she and the woman who covered her ears joined in and ended up smiling.  We learned that making eye contact and smiling increased their involvement.  We also learned that using a cowbell hurts the ears of those wearing hearing aids.

The staff was amazed and so were we.  We never expected the session to last so long.  It was our experience that continuing to play brought more involvement from the patients. According to Dorothy Gorman the program “exceeded expectations”. 

We ended up working with the physically handicapped, deaf, blind, dementia and all levels of Alzheimer’s patients in one institution.  The drum reached all these populations and enriched their lives.

Lake Placid Health Care wants to keep the drum therapy program going on a permanent basis.  To that end the Primal Connection is now training two of their staff members to take the program over.

Florida has a large population of elderly and Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes.  Our pilot program has now become a two part seeding program.  The Primal Connection will now be introducing drum therapy to health care institutions and then training their personnel to take it over.  In this way we can bring the healing power of the drum to the largest number of people.

Postscript:  Since this was written the Primal Connection has been asked to play and Fred has been asked to speak at an alternative medicine symposium (June 2004).

We have also done a four-week program at Hardee County Middle School for profoundly handicapped children.  It was extremely rewarding working with the 20 plus children.

The entire group did a program with autistic and other handicapped children at Sebring Middle School and was asked back to play for there last day of school. 

Our next program will be at Potter’s House for girls at Risk.  We are hoping to get a grant from WalMart to sponsor this endeavor.

The Primal Connection is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to using the drum to unite, educate, heal and lift the spirit.  The organization originated in Chicago and is now headquartered in Sebring Florida.  For more information visit their site at www.primalconnection.org.