The CARE program at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is an arts-based day program offering care and socialization services for older adults living with Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia while also providing support to their caregivers and families. In 2018 I began playing piano for the group; twice a month I travelled to the Upper East Side to perform a range of show tunes, film scores, classical and pop music to an audience of 9-12 people—until March of 2020 when the program halted indefinitely. In July, CARE resumed via the now ubiquitous Zoom video conferencing platform, and I began performing weekly, even after relocating to Madrid, Spain; the program has become my main performance space in a world bereft of live music.
Elizabeth Hartowicz, the director of CARE, draws from the person-centered approach of Carl Rogers, which emphasizes genuineness, acceptance, and emphatic understanding as the core conditions of therapeutic presence (Rogers, 1980). Many clients have limited verbal abilities to express themselves, with less freedom to make their own choices in daily life. Therapeutic presence includes acknowledging their experience amidst frustrating communication barriers, accepting their joy and the spontaneity of their expression, and empathizing with their unique experiences of time, space, and memory. Knowing each of the clients as individuals-- with their needs, interests, strengths and preferences-- is key to connecting with them, helping them feel better and finding meaning in their lives, regardless of the dementia-related limitations.