DEMENTIA CARE MUSICMADE EASY
Lizzie Hoskin, Music for Dementia Community Engagement Strategist, explores why music must remain simple and accessible for people living with dementia — and how a new campaign is working with care homes and industry to keep the soundtrack of life within reach.
Music can do things words cannot. For people living with dementia, a familiar song can cut through confusion, ease anxiety and spark moments of recognition and connection. Yet as music has moved online, many older people, including those in care homes, are finding themselves locked out of the soundtrack that shaped their lives.
Music that once filled kitchens, cars and dancefloors is now hidden behind screens, passwords and complex menus. Care home teams know this tension all too well. You see first-hand how quickly a well chosen song can settle a distressed resident or unlock a long buried memory. But you also know the practical barriers: family CDs with no player, streaming services hidden by personal passwords, patchy Wi Fi and the simple reality that care staff don’t have time to navigate multiple menus and adverts just to play a specific song.
That’s why simple, dementia-friendly tools matter. One example already available is
m4dRADIO.com, our free, easy-to-access online radio service created specifically for people living with dementia. With carefully curated music from across the decades and no adverts, news or complicated controls, it offers something care homes can use today: turn it on, choose the decade most relevant to your residents and let the music play.
https://m4dradio.com
But this isn’t just a care home issue, it’s a systemic one. Research by Music for Dementia with 1,000 family carers found that only three in 10 older carers are able to stream music with their loved one who has dementia. Age UK research echoes this, showing that six in 10 internet users aged 65 and over never stream music or videos at all.
This growing divide was the focus of a new industry roundtable hosted by Music for Dementia and the University of Sheffield in London. Bringing together leaders from the music, technology and dementia sectors, the event addressed a pressing question: in a digital world, how do we keep music genuinely accessible for older adults and people living with dementia, rather than letting it become yet another thing they – and care homes – have to battle with?
One of the strongest themes to emerge from the roundtable was the importance of co-production and this is where care homes have a vital role to play. Participants agreed that people living with dementia, alongside carers, must be involved in designing products and services from the outset. In practice, that means the expertise of your residents, their relatives and your staff, particularly Activity Coordinators, should be shaping what ‘good’ looks like.
While examples of progress do exist, the group acknowledged that isolated solutions are not enough. Meaningful change will require collaboration across sectors. Following the roundtable a new Music Made Easy taskforce has been created to drive industry-
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wide improvements in music accessibility for people living with dementia. For care homes, this is a chance to help define future tools, not just adapt to whatever the market produces.
With around 940,000 people living with dementia in the UK this isn’t a ‘nice to have’ for care homes – it’s fast becoming an essential part of person-centred care. As Amy Shackleton, Programme Lead at Music for Dementia, said: “The generation that created popular music is now increasingly locked out of it. Music isn’t a luxury for people living with dementia. It’s a lifeline.”
Our Music Made Easy taskforce is about making sure the wider music and tech industries match that effort by delivering tools that make your job easier, not harder, and keep the soundtrack of life within reach for every resident who needs it.
So, what can care homes do next? Start by integrating m4dRADIO. com into daily routines and noting how residents respond. If your Activity Coordinators or care teams have found effective ways to weave music into care plans, we’d love you to tell us what’s working well – or even send in your very own ‘Songs of your Residents’ playlist for broadcast on the MIX (Activities) channel.
https://m4dradio.com
If your home would like to be involved in the Music Made Easy campaign – contribute your ideas, share your successes and challenges with music and technology – or would like more information on m4dRADIO, please get in touch at:
info@musicfordementia.org.uk.
www.musicfordementia.org.uk www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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