practical living
Song of thy self
There are many possibilities
for music’s apparent ability to
restore the memory and get
people back in touch with the
person they’ve always been.
Bill Thompson and Amee Baird
interviewed by Dallas Bastian
W
atching a clip of someone with
advanced dementia tap along
to one of their favourite songs
and sing a few words was just one way
attendees of a recent forum witnessed the
power of music in care.
BaptistCare’s recent dementia forum,
Stories of Me, brought together industry
experts, carers and people living with
dementia to explore technology and
creativity in dementia care. Presenters
professor Bill Thompson and Dr Amee Baird,
from Macquarie University, delved into the
healing power of music and its profound
effect on people with neurological disorders.
Be it a lullaby, tune of old or new pop
song, pieces of music can be used to
explore memory and self-identity, and
prompt new learning in people with
dementia, the pair told the room.
In her presentation, Thompson discussed
how music can affect people with
neurological disorders in multiple ways,
addressing each individual’s problems and
providing benefits to many.
One feature of music that Baird focused
on was the impact it can have on memory.
The research team will be looking at the
relationship between music, memory and
the self.
18 agedcareinsite.com.au
Baird said there are many ways music
can be incorporated into healthcare
settings and the team hopes to develop a
program that can be used in care facilities.
Upon learning about the relationships
between music and the brain, earlier this
year, BaptistCare decided to conduct a
pilot study of its own, looking at the impact
individual, personalised playlists had on the
quality of life of residents with dementia.
A team led by Barnetta Lesta, a registered
music therapist with BaptistCare, made
playlists to target the individual needs of
some residents at the provider’s Macquarie
Park facility.
They found that some residents
responded immediately, moving to the
music, smiling, singing and whistling, while
the playlists had a calming effect on others.
The technology behind the playlists was
foreign to some staff members, but Lesta
says the project was made simpler by getting
IT team members involved and running
training sessions to get all care workers
on the same page. “We wanted to see this
intervention being owned by all the staff to
promote the best outcomes,” she says.
Here, Thompson and Baird sit down with
Aged Care Insite to discuss the potential of
music therapy.
ACI: Bill, what is the research telling
us at the moment about music-based
therapy?
BT: Well, there are different research projects
at different places in the world, and some
people focus on neurological conditions,
such as Parkinson’s. Other people focus
on dementia and so forth, but they’re
telling us that music can affect people in
multiple ways, depending on the issue at
stake; whether they’ve got a motor problem,
memory problems, emotional problems
or social isolation problems. So music can
be used to cater to each individual’s situation
and help benefit those people.
In your presentation, you talked about
seven beneficial features of music that
may help explain the effect it has on
people with neurological disorders. Just
briefly, what are those seven factors, and
how can they influence people?
BT: Music is sort of a jack of all trades. It has
so many different features all combined
into one nice package that people enjoy
engaging with. One of them is that music
seems to stimulate the motor. It’s physical,
so the physical aspect of music is important.
We dance to music, clap to music, and
so forth. The second is that it’s social. We
often engage in music with other people,
and having communication and contact
with others is important for all of the