Annual Drum Circle : Wellness Story #9

Salisbury Behavioral Health

I have been providing wellness services to various facilities for the last four years or so (2015), and I am always reminded of one of my experiences at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, in New Jersey. For confidentiality reasons, I can’t share names or any patient details that could reveal their identity, but I can share some experiential stories.

Annual Drum Circle

Several years running I was asked to facilitate a drum circle for Salisbury Behavioral Health out of the Philadelphia area. They hold their annual BBQ in Nockamixon Park in Pennsylvania. The park is very large, and it has a beautiful lake in the center of it, and the event is typically held in one of their pavilions right near the water, so it’s always a really nice location for making some music with community.

Over the years, I have become familiar with and friends with many of the participants, most of whom are adults with various developmental disabilities. They are all a bit older than the groups I serve in central New Jersey, comprised mostly of adults and some nearly seniors.

The people in this group love sing alongs, so we often incorporate that as an element in the event. They love John Denver, and the Beatles, so it’s not uncommon for a chorus of “Country Roads”, or “Hard Days Night” to erupt suddenly while I’m performing with them. They really are a delightful group, and I enjoy every chance I have to work with them.

The owner of the organization, Ski Domrzalski, is also a restauranteur, owning Big Poppa’s Backyard BBQ. Ski caters the events with his amazing food, and I have to admit, that is always a nice perk of this event.

Reflections

The community at Salisbury is unique, as they all are, but I find them very enjoyable in the way that they are a little older, and therefore familiar with music from generations past. The younger groups don’t always know a lot of the stuff from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, and that is something that I personally connect with, so it enhances the experience for me as well. It reminds me that music is the great unifier, and research has shown that not even Alzheimer’s or dementia can take musical memories away from people. So seeing a community where some people are rather low functioning, yet high functioning when it comes to singing and remembering songs, it’s just astounding.