Lemon Grove Care & Rehabilitation Center Selected for Innovative Music Therapy Grant

Lemon Grove Care & Rehabilitation Center Selected for Innovative Music Therapy Grant

iPod-Based Personalized Music Program Benefits Nursing Center Residents

LEMON GROVE, Calif., Oct. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Lemon Grove Care & Rehabilitation Center, a 158-bed skilled nursing facility in Lemon Grove, California, has been awarded a $3,500 grant to improve quality of life and enhance therapeutic outcomes for long-term care residents via the establishment of the "Well-Tuned: Music Players for Health" program.

"Music is already a central recreational activity in long-term care," said Scott Kirby, CEO of Lemon Grove Care. However, he noted that, because recreational activities involving music in typical long-term convalescent settings are traditionally group-based, music availability is time-limited and song selection is generally only age-appropriate, but not person-specific.

"It turns out that total music personalization magnifies music's benefits for both skilled nursing patients and convalescent residents, regardless of cognitive, physical, or social situation," he added. Among the benefits, personalized listening can significantly reduce agitation and "sun-downing," increase patient cooperation and attention, improve engagement and socialization, provide a meaningful activity for temporarily or permanently immobilized patients, such those receiving dialysis, on ventilator equipment or who are otherwise bedbound, and even includes a non-pharmaceutical approach to reducing pain.

"Well-Tuned: Music Players for Health" is a collaborative program between nonprofits Music & Memory and the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function. Grant funding was provided by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Lemon Grove Care was one of only 17 facilities nationwide selected for the program. More information about the program is available at www.musicandmemory.org and www.imnf.org.

About Lemon Grove Care & Rehabilitation Center

Lemon Grove Care & Rehabilitation Center provides skilled nursing services, physical, occupational and speech therapies, and other rehabilitative and healthcare services for both short-stay rehabilitation patients and long-term residents. It is operated by Lemon Grove Health Associates LLC, an independent operating subsidiary of The Ensign Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENSG), whose subsidiaries provide a broad spectrum of skilled nursing and assisted living services, physical, occupational and speech therapies, home health and hospice services, and other rehabilitative and healthcare services for both long-term residents and short-stay rehabilitation patients at 100 facilities, three hospice companies and three home health businesses in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa and Nebraska. More information about Ensign is available at http://www.ensigngroup.net. More information about Lemon Grove Care is available at http://www.lemongrovecare.com.

SOURCE Lemon Grove Health Associates LLC

Lemon Grove Health Associates LLC

CONTACT: Scott Kirby, Lemon Grove Care & Rehabilitation Center (619) 463-0294

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