Michael Timmons, Executive Director of music and dementia charity, Playlist for Life, discusses how engaging with meaningful music can enhance the quality of life for individuals living with dementia.
Meaningful music can help people living with dementia to live well. It’s a simple concept that can have a profound effect on a person’s physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. Music holds incredible power that can reach parts of the brain that are damaged and has been proven to help reduce some of the most distressing symptoms of dementia including agitation, anxiety and in some cases, reduce the need for medication.
Something we hear often from people living with dementia, and those who love and care for them, is that they’d wish they’d known about the benefits of personally meaningful music for managing symptoms of dementia sooner. That’s why it’s our mission to embed personally meaningful music into dementia care: so that it becomes an essential tool and not just a ‘nice to have’. When personalised music playlists were integrated into care at Lilyburn Care Home near Glasgow, they saw a 60% reduction in the need for medication for some of the residents, a firm demonstration of why we should be reaching for music over medicine where we can.
Meaningful music can be used with people one-on-one as part of a personalised care plan or in connective activities with groups. When training health and social care professionals in the use of music in dementia care, we advise that there’s no ‘one size fits all’ but, crucially, it’s music that is meaningful to the person listening that has the biggest impact. The songs that have soundtracked someone’s life will best evoke memories and help them connect with themselves and others. These are the songs engrained in a person’s identity, linked to a person’s childhood and milestone moments like first concerts, birthdays, and family holidays and tracks that are associated with someone’s family, hometown, sports culture and religion.
Tracking down the right tunes can sometimes be time consuming, but our music detective tips and tools can help. A care home professional used our advice to discover the personalised playlists of people they were caring for. They did this by playing parts of tracks from people’s era and ‘memory bump’ (songs that were popular when someone was between the ages 10 and 30) during mealtimes to get people singing and talking about their memories. They then took a note of what songs individuals were responding positively to for future reference and this gave her a strong idea of what is on each person’s personalised playlist. In groups, meaningful music can be a great ice breaker to get people talking and singing together, to improve engagement and connection.
While songs are a great roadmap into our past to help bring back happy memories, there are unfortunately, some songs will bring back less happy memories. We call these ‘red flag’ songs. It’s important to observe a person’s reaction to each song played for them and make a note of any that cause emotional discomfort. Are these tears of sadness or happiness associated with a fond memories or loss? Or are they tears of discomfort or distress? It’s important to be mindful.
Meaningful music can also be used therapeutically to help with routine, periods of the day or tasks that may have become more difficult or challenging. In an NHS dementia ward in Fife researchers found the use of personalised music playlists significantly reduced levels of agitation and led to them becoming markedly less stressed during clinical procedures in 96% of cases. And in 2024, care staff in a care home in England used music to reduce anxiety around mealtimes for one resident which improved their nutrition, weight gain and mood.
For Willy, who lives with Alzheimer’s, music from his youth was therapeutic in enabling him to paint again. Painting had been his lifelong hobby, but he lost interest in it in the lead up to his diagnosis. He described his disposition as ‘baffled, bewildered, lost’ because art had been central to his identity. But when listening to a playlist full of the music of his youth – songs by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones – his desire to paint and draw returned, which he said was akin to getting back a working muscle.
Applying the power of meaningful music into dementia care is more than just possessing a skillset. It’s a transformative approach that can be a lifeline for someone living with dementia It can be transformative, too, for the care professional. Discovering the soundtrack of someone’s life can you know the person beyond the diagnosis, allowing for stronger relationships and true person-centred care. Music can bring moments of joy and flashes of happiness to anyone facing affected by dementia and it’s here and ready to dispense now, aiding the future of dementia care one meaningful song at a time.
@PlaylistforLife
playlistforlife.org.uk
