Strengthening communication through music - helping people living with dementia and their carers

17 Apr 2018

Last year in December you may have read our blog entry on an Empowered Conversations workshop that detailed one of our social return activities aimed at supporting carers in our community. January of this year saw the follow up programme in Keighley that Enable2 also funded. The subsequent workshops placed an emphasis on the use of music. They explored ways in which melody and tune can help communication for participants.

How music was used throughout the programme

In collaboration with Dementia Friendly in Keighley who made the provision of the course possible, the programme ran for three weeks with a total of 25 participants attending. The aim of the course was to explore ways to stay connected; delve into aspects of music that support spoken language and give musical tools to help strengthen connection and communication.

The sessions incorporated many ways to address these objectives. These included learning new songs, monitoring ways in which an increased pace and complexity can lead to a breakdown of communication, the importance of tone of voice and how instructions or information may be processed more easily when sung.

Reactions from those involved

Two participants commented on the sessions:

One person said that the course was “Really interactive, fun, [and] great to share experiences”

Another, that they enjoyed, “The way we bonded: music is one language whatever our native language”

One attendee even commented that the sessions were “a godsend” when asked how they would describe it to friends.

What did participants take away?

The course participants reaped the benefits of group singing, especially related to mental and emotional wellbeing. Following on from the sessions 98% of the participants agreed that they planned on using more music to help when conversing with people living with dementia. They also expressed that they wished to meet again. This shows that relationships were taken away from the sessions as well as insights into how communication can benefit from the use of music.

For more information on current and past social return activities, navigate to our news section on our website. Stay connected with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and don’t forget to hit share if you like what we are doing for the communities around us.