practical living
what they thought would be physically supportive – actually had a
smaller waist circumference than those who didn’t walk with their
music. We also found that they walked a little bit faster, became fitter
and reduced their blood pressure.
These are interesting findings. We didn’t actually find that they
were more likely to meet the physical activity guidelines, but with
a sample size of only 56 people, we’d probably need to do more
investigation given those exercise and health-related outcomes.
Another aspect of music therapy that you looked into was its
application in dementia care in the community and group
singing and personalised home music programs. What impact
are those interventions having on people with dementia and
family caregivers?
That project is in the early stages. We’ve just completed a pilot
study, and the sort of findings we’ve got is that the singing is one
component. It brings people together. We had singing groups for
people with dementia, but also their caregivers were atte nding the
sessions with them, so it was meant for couples or mother/daughter,
mother/son, or husband and wife.
We had 22 people in that project – 11 with dementia and 11
of their carers. We found that there were different outcomes or
benefits for people with dementia compared to the caregivers. This
is qualitative data mostly, but for our people living with dementia, it
was an opportunity for them to be successful.
Often, singing is a retained skill into the very late stages of
dementia. We see that a lot, and it’s been a well known fact for a
long time. For our people with dementia, they were able to sing, and
it was a normalising path of experience. They were successful, they
were contributing as part of this group, rather than always being
someone who is struggling to contribute, as they may in lots of
other social situations. So there’s the physicality of the music itself,
but supporting that normalising engagement, that social interaction.
Also, we know that music and singing and engaging, particularly
doing music, is really important. It’s more important than just
listening. We have found it is much more effective to engage in
music because it seems to reduce agitation levels, to have a relaxing,
cathartic effect, and it makes sense because we’re connecting with
something people can do. But also we’re often connecting with the
past life of that person, where their memories sit, so it’s something
they can contribute to as well.
It was also incredibly cathartic for our caregivers. They were
talking about how important it was to spend time with other carers
who understood how they feel about caring for someone with
dementia at home. The stress levels and burden of care for those
people is immense. They’re the unheard heroes in our community.
They save us – they save the government – millions of dollars by
caring for people in the home.
But it’s a tough job and very isolating, and the choir gave those
people a social opportunity where they didn’t feel worried that
their loved one with dementia might suddenly become agitated
or become incontinent or something, because they knew that
everyone else in the group understood that situation as well.
And many of them loved singing. Others didn’t have any musical
experience at all, but they all absolutely loved singing and getting
into that sort of physical music in your body.
We also saw both the people with dementia and our caregivers
learning brand new songs. We didn’t expect the people with
dementia to be able to learn new songs off by heart, because we
knew that they didn’t know them at the start of the sessions, and
then they were able to sing at concerts and various places without
any lyrics. But also our caregivers enjoyed that opportunity of
learning a new skill. Many of them hadn’t been singing before. We
did quite complex singing, too. We did part singing and rounds and
other things, which are not easy to do.
So there are lots of benefits. We’re about to start a big randomised
control trial in the next month or so and that’ll be across various
sites. We’re recruiting 180 people for that, so hopefully we’ll have
some stronger findings, or we’ll be able to build on those initial
pilot findings in that larger randomised controlled trial over the next
12 months.
And you were also recently awarded a $50,000 Hazel Hawke
research grant in dementia care to explore the potential of
group songwriting. What will that project involve?
This project will involve our community-dwelling people living with
dementia and their spouses. So it’s their families. We’re looking for
spousal couples who are living in the community where one person
in that partnership has dementia. What we’re going to be doing
there is songwriting.
Songwriting is a music therapy intervention where we bring
people together to brainstorm their experiences, their ideas and
their expressions, and to work to create original songs. It’s not so
much the final product that’s important but the process of writing
those songs. It’s a little bit like my previous answer in some ways
in that we’re bringing people together with similar challenges and
experiences in life.
Then there’s that cathartic interaction among groups, that
process of writing the song really brings it to life. And, of course,
it’s also about those songs communicating what their experience
is really like outside. Often it’s very bottled up, and people living
with dementia and their carers are very isolated in the community
and don’t have those opportunities to meet with other people,
and certainly don’t have those opportunities to really express what
it’s like for them. We know that being able to do that is extremely
cathartic for those people.
So that study is about working through that songwriting process
with around 60 couples, and we’ll be doing a randomised control
trial there too. We’ll be comparing various health and wellbeing
measurements between people who have received the songwriting
intervention, and people who just receive normal care in the
community, to see whether or not there are some improvements in
health and wellbeing as a result.
The songs written during the project will be performed and
recorded to increase public awareness and understanding
about what it’s like to live with dementia. Why is it important to
cut through to the general public in unique ways?
Well, the public really don’t understand. There is still a large stigma
attached to dementia. Most of us know somebody with dementia,
so it’s very prominent.
Alzheimer’s Australia, now Dementia Australia, last year did
a large survey and found that the prevalence of stigma and
misunderstanding about dementia was fairly high in Australia,
so creating a song like this has a few benefits. Firstly it gives a
true expression of what it is to experience dementia, which can
then be heard by large audiences and hopefully that will help to
improve understanding among the public about what it’s like to
live with dementia. But it also shows how people with dementia
and their caregivers can contribute too, how they ’re capable of
producing something that contributes to society and society’s
understanding and their own future wellbeing. ■
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