GreyMatters embodies so much of what I learned at last year's National Center for Creative Aging Conference & Leadership Exchange. Have got to get familiar with it before next month's NCCA Conference!
The app designer, Jenny Rozbruch, was inspired by her grandmother, Frieda, who died last November, at 91. Jenny knew her grandmother as a great cook who'd immigrated to the USA in 1953, a woman who survived the Holocaust, spoke seven languages, was smart & capable & remarkably self-reliant.
Jenny was brokenhearted that her beloved grandmother spent the last six years of her life unable to take care of herself, unable to even connect with her beloved children & grandchildren. But a broken heart can open us to seeing things in a new light. As Jenny did.
GreyMatters is an iPad app that Jenny created as her thesis project at NYC's School of Visual Arts, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts in 2013. Jenny believed that her grandmother's rich trove of memories - her Romanian childhood, her marriage, being a parent & grandparent, all the amazing moments of her remarkable life - were still inside her, just waiting to be triggered.
The spark she came up, GreyMatters, is an interactive life storybook that integrates photos, music and games to preserve memories ~ and ~ engage people who suffer from memory challenges.
Jenny's app is easy to use, portable & rich with material that can help all ages of family & caregivers to have deeper, more resonant interactions with older friends & family. Although targeted for people with dementia, it would be invaluable with all ages. The free app is available to download from the iTunes Store.
Jenny Rozbruch knew that one happy, clear moment could help offset the dark moments that come with dementia & Alzheimer's. How wonderful that she got to
share early versions of GreyMatters with Frieda, got to see how spot on she was in believing that it would trigger precious moments of clarity & connection.
By uploading family photos & pairing it with a line or two of basic text - recorded voice narration is also an option - family or caregivers can team photo history with context. The app can enrich social interactions, making it easier to enjoy shared conversation & interplay.
Music plays a key role on Jenny's app. Favorite tunes can be uploaded from iTunes. Last month, I discussed the power of music in Call-Respond, its potential impact on elderly brains, "Music has transformative powers. It not only has the ability to change moods and lift spirits, but one song can transport the listener to another place and time... The same is true for listeners with Alzheimer’s disease." (alzheimers.net).
It's exciting to read an article citing the same sources I wrote about last month, especially the 2014 documentary Alive Inside which demonstrated how dementia patients outfitted with iPods playing familiar songs from their younger years enlivened people who'd been unresponsive.
Research is hopeful that music therapy - even as simple as that provided through Jenny's app - might be able to slow the progression of dementia. One thing is already clear - it definitely improved their quality of life. And Jenny hopes that folks will be singing along with the tunes, which boosts the fun & the cognitive function benefits - as Jenny said of her grandmother, "She couldn't even communicate; she certainly didn't have a short-term memory, but she'd remember every line to a song and the tune."
The app comes with pre-loaded material, including historical & pop culture references from the 1930s, '40s and '50s, which can serve as conversation-starters. What will be familiar ground for the aging & elderly can become a priceless history & cultural lesson for young folks. The "my games" material promotes even more interaction between elders & youngers.
My mother was awed by how the Internet allowed her universe to expand rather than contract; imagining how she'd love GreyMatters, to have Aunt Betty & Ellen, Gig & Christa, Dad & her earlier selves front & center, as well as in her heart.
I'm glad to be 63 years old, to experience today's technology as whiz bang wonders rather than taking it for granted, as youngers naturally do. And it's so beyond awesome that modern technology - science fiction transformed into science fact - can help make such a mind-boggling difference in expanding the experiences of older friends who find themselves increasingly confined.
A core benefit related to using GreyMatters comes from gathering the material & downloading it onto the iPad, from reviewing the preloaded historical & cultural material. The more WE can put an older person within a context, the easier it is for us to more fully connect with them. However they respond to the app, we will gain a better awareness of them as people, not just as a relative, friend or client.
My thanks to Huffington Post for its article on Jenny (it contains much more than I cover here - read it), to Judy Orvos for posting the link, to Jenny for being Jenny, and to her amazing grandmother, Frieda, for being a wonderful grandmother & a fabulous inspiration!
I hope Jenny doesn't mind that I am closing with the description of GreyMatters included on her resume. My congratulations on her achievement - gives me goosebumps, seeing what happens when personal experience & creative strengths intersect.
GreyMatters is a tablet application that aims to improve quality of life for people with dementia and their caregivers. Through an interactive life storybook, paired with music and games, the app helps patients and families preserve yesterday’s memories, as well as share today’s joyful moments. With a strong belief that people with dementia are “still here,” GreyMatters taps into the abilities that remain to keep individuals engaged and connected.
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