Welcome to the first edition of Five Questions With of 2025, where we’ve gone international as we speak to Dr. Marc Rothman, CEO of US-based Lizzy Care. We met Dr. Rothman at last year’s Scottish Dementia Arts Festival in Edinburgh. Below, he speaks about his passion for improving care. and why the arts should be an integral part of it.
Hi Marc, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Your role as CEO with Lizzy Care focuses on reinventing dementia care – what are your current priorities in this capacity and how will they improve the lives of people living with dementia and their carers?
Our mission at Lizzy Care is to reimagine dementia care at home, helping families meet today’s needs while anticipating tomorrow’s challenges. We do that through services, technology, and evidence-based care that helps persons living with dementia and their caregivers, too. For example, our Lizzy Companions help improve quality of life, maintain function, and provide much-needed respite for caregivers.
Right now my priorities are to the patient and family experience with Lizzy Care, ensuring new members are evaluated quickly and have a care plan in hand within those first days and weeks of becoming a Lizzy customer. I spend a lot of time listening to clients to identify their needs and create personalised care plans that exceed their expectations.
To meet our goals and drive value for both clients and customers, I’m building a great team of creative, driven innovators who have led on clinical services, technology solutions that consumers can easily use at home, and sales. As CEO and lead provider, ultimately, I’m accountable for outcomes, both clinical and financial.
It’s shameful that proven interventions like music, dance, and other performing arts, are not more widely available to people living with dementia and their families, and still are not covered by any supplemental health insurance benefits. Creative arts, including music and musical theatre, provide a means to combat the pervasive isolation and boredom that has historically plagued the dementia community. Studies show significant improvement in socialisation, communication and engagement among people living with dementia when participating in arts-based activities.1,2.
At Dementia Spring, our artists and innovators describe their impact every day:
Sam Simon, creator of the one-man stage play Dementia Man and himself a person living with dementia says: “The performance of Dementia Man has shown me its power to change and help people come to terms with these challenges.”
His work was chosen for a 2022 Dementia Arts Fellowship and described in a recent Dementia Spring Spotlight.
Carlos Olivas Jr, also a PLWD, described his figurative and abstract artwork as a source of good feeling and enjoyment in the Spotlight of his work This is My Brain Today.
Beyond its therapeutic benefits, art has the power to change the stories we tell ourselves about dementia. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are simply not just about wheelchairs and nursing homes anymore. People are living with memory loss more robustly than ever before, they are out and about in our communities, and we need a new way of thinking and talking about that reality with new generations of families and caregivers. Art has the power to educate and inform the public about a disease affecting a growing number of individuals. At Dementia Spring we seek to fundamentally change people’s perceptions of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in the modern age.
In my personal life, I see the power of music and art in action daily. My Uncle Ira, the husband and caregiver of Aunt Sandy, a person living with advanced Alzheimer’s disease, uses music, dance, and song to keep he and Sandy vital and engaged, as individuals and as a couple. Morning playlists they have sung along with or danced to in the afternoon and choral groups that engaged Sandy’s mind, heart, and soul have provided them with a level of peace, respite, and stimulation that is rare today.
As a physician, I’ve been incredibly impressed by the work of the Day By Day Project, another Dementia Arts Fellow. Day by Day’s Memory Discos are multisensory movement experiences designed for those with cognitive impairment who have shown improvements in mood, cognition, and behaviour.
When it comes to caregivers seeing and hearing their stories reflected in music, nothing compares with Jess King’s original song Here And Now. Inspired by Jess’s personal experience walking with her father through his dementia journey, Here And Now pays tribute to those within the dementia community, many of whom were in the room when she performed at last year’s Dementia ARTS Festival in New York City. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, with so many caregivers feeling seen and recognising their own experiences in the lyrics of the song.
Dolerme, Rosalia
It’s a soulful ballad in Spanish about heartbreak and moving on from a past love. Her angelic voice reminds me that beauty can shine through, even in our darkest hours.
Over and Over and Over, Jack White
The tempo and lyrics inspire me to keep on keeping on, and to enjoy the journey, not just the destination.
Don’t Forget Me, Red Hot Chilli Peppers
This song steadily builds in a slow, melodic chant that I find mesmerizing. Everyone wants to be respected, remembered, and valued — this song makes that so explicitly clear!
Fly As Me, Bruno Mars & Anderson Paak
Because it’s just fun to dance and sing, which I do with my wife, Sisi, as much as possible.
Here and Now, Jess King
Jess’s 2023 entry inspired us at Dementia Spring from the first moment we heard it. There’s no more fitting soundtrack to the work we do in bringing the arts to people living with dementia and their families!
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