Music Therapy for Dementia

How do we relate to someone with dementia, whether a stranger we see in the community or a loved one? He or she remains “an individual who has had a full life of intact experiences and sense of self and others. These memories are not destroyed in dementia, but access to and ability to retrieve them is” (Tomaino, 2013, p. 240). Moreover, as the regions of the brain associated with musical memory overlap with regions relatively spared in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), it is still possible to use music to reach an elderly client with late-stage AD (Jacobsen et al., 2015). This is a often-witnessed miracle on the dementia care ward (where I used to work), when I sang or played a familiar and preferred song to connect with the client. 

To elaborate a bit further, a senior recently diagnosed with early stage dementia may be referred for music therapy due to their cognitive decline, hence, working on attention, memory, executive functioning skills may be prioritised. For certain types of dementia, motor skills are impacted early on. So in these cases, it would be crucial to work on motor coordination and range of motion, for instance, to support independence in their day-to-day activities as much as possible. 

Music therapy can be used purposefully to target cognition, behaviour, emotional expression, depression, anxiety, and word finding ability. Research shows that music therapy improves the quality of life of people with dementia, and has a long-term effect on depression symptoms associated with dementia (Moreno-Morales, Calero, Moreno-Morales, & Pintado, 2020; Tomaino, 2013). 

Visit benefits of music therapy page for the full list of references.