MUSIC


Strike the Right Chord


Mary McDougall, Community Officer at Playlist for Life, discusses why playlists should be integrated into personalised dementia care and why care organisations should invest in staff training.


I’m sure we’ve all experienced turning on the radio, hearing a piece of music and being transported back to a time and place in our life. It could be a track from your teenage years that reminds you of your first taste of independence, a summer hit that brings back happy holiday memories or a favourite song shared with a loved one that makes you think of them whenever you hear it.


Over 20 years’ worth of scientific research has demonstrated the power of personalised music for those living with dementia. Music that is personally meaningful, like these examples above, is at the heart of Playlist for Life’s mission to make a positive difference to the lives of those affected by dementia. We believe that everyone living with dementia should have their own personalised playlist of songs that bring back happy memories, and that everyone who loves and cares for them should know how to use the playlist effectively.


I’ve been lucky enough to see playlists in action in multiple care homes, and the great power this simple concept can have if used effectively. It’s not just the people with dementia that can benefit from personal music, but also their families and healthcare professionals, who report back to us with all sorts of ways playlists have made their visits, caring duties and interactions with the person living with dementia happier and easier. One care home even reported a 60% reduction in the need for psychotropic medication. Above all, integrating playlists into your caring duties is about empowering staff to be truly person-centred in their care. By exploring someone’s own personal playlist, you’re also getting to know them and connecting with the person behind the diagnosis.


Our new training on integrating playlists into care has been developed in consultation with practitioners and draws on our existing experience and feedback from training over 100 organisations.


After seeing the success of Playlist for Life in a care home setting, Heather Edwards, Dementia Consultant for the


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Care Inspectorate, said: “I hope to see Playlist for Life in all care homes.”


With these new training packages, we’re really emphasising the whole-home approach to integrating playlists. This means that everyone in an organisation caring for people with dementia has a role to play in implementing playlists, from senior management and carers to receptionists and kitchen staff. For example, if someone living with dementia is continually sending back their food, a member of catering staff could recognise this and suggest scheduling of therapeutic playlist activity before mealtimes – it’s a method we’ve seen used before to great effect. From experience, we’ve learnt that the more people who are involved in the project, the more music will become a standard part of the daily life for the people we’re caring for, and the greater impact it will have.


"We believe that everyone living with dementia should have their own


personalised playlist of songs that bring back happy memories"


Music isn’t a cure for dementia, but it certainly can make a difference to resident and staff happiness within a care setting. I recently attended a celebration for a care home provider that had supported five of their centres to embed playlists into their setting, including one which had recently been rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission and had seen Playlist for Life highlighted in the report. From reductions in medication to increased staff morale, the results from each home were as unique as the playlists themselves. The biggest take-away was that music allowed them to get to know the person they were caring for and connect with them in a way that looks beyond a dementia diagnosis.


www.playlistforlife.org.uk/training www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


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