A Community-Based Music Therapy Support Group for People With Alzheimer's Disease and Their Caregivers: A Sustainable Partnership Model

Abstract

People with Alzheimer's and related dementias and their family caregivers who reside at home have unique strengths and needs. They have the strengths of being in a place with which they are familiar, with people whom they are in close relationship. Often it is the spouse who provides the primary care of their loved one, and as the disease progresses both members of the couple are at risk for depression, isolation, and decreased contact with peers and community networks that serve to help maintain sociocultural, intellectual, physical, sensory, and spiritual needs. The person with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) loses life skills and sense of self as their memory loss worsens, and the caregiver-loved one, whether they are the spouse, relative, or close companion, becomes increasingly burdened physically and emotionally. Meaningful support through a community-based peer group helps meet the needs of the person with dementia and their caregiver from the first symptoms to the later stages of AD, through a carefully designed music therapy program tailored to preferences, culture, and ability. The music therapist working in the community provides practical leadership in coordination with local agencies, understands the needs of the person with dementia and their caregiver from a cultural and psychosocial perspective, and is creatively equipped in all facets of musical engagement for health and wellness, and fosters cognitive/intellectual, socio-emotional, physical, and spiritual support. The MT support group was found to relieve some of the strain on caregivers by allowing for greater emotional support through relationships with peers and professionals, and through the increase of meaningful interactions with their loved one with dementia. Through enjoyment of shared, pleasurable music experiences that stimulate memories, movement, language, and socialization, the person with AD and their caregiver developed a deeper connection with each other, and gained support, creative expression, and comfort from their peer group, as well as practical networking and sharing of resources and information related to their specific health and wellness needs. The community-based MT support group has been replicated twice within the region, and is a promising model for other communities. Formal research is recommended to provide further evidence of the effectiveness of the approach, and to allow for greater accessibility for marginalized people to participate in a program such as this in their own community.

Towards sustainable implementation of music in daily care of people with dementia and their spouses

“…Also, songs lead to reminiscing, thus creating paths to renewed memories and to the strong feelings associated with those memories ( Osman, Tischler, & Schneider, 2016 ; Otera, Horike, & Saito, 2013 ). Finally, singing songs or listening to them is an enjoyable activity that can be done together ( Chatterton, Baker, & Morgan, 2011 ; Rio, 2018 ), thus providing positive shared moments that might become rare due to the difficulties experienced by people with dementia and their spouses ( Ingersoll-Dayton et al, 2016 ). Similar interactions between couples using singing can be seen in the qualitative and retrospective longitudinal case study by Baird and Thompson (2018) , which documented precious moments between the caring husband and TC, a 77-year-old with dementia engaging in musical activity at home.…”

“…Music therapy has been found to be an effective means to aid PCs ( Hanser, Butterfield-Whitcomb, & Collins, 2011 ; Ray, Dassa, Maeir, Davis, & Ogunlade, 2016 ; Rio, 2018 ; Särkämö et al, 2013 ) and several programs were developed with the aim of providing musical strategies to aid PCs in their daily challenges. Due to the limited scope of this manuscript, programs for PCs in general that relate to children or other caregivers were excluded.…”

“We’re pushing back”: Group singing, social identity, and caring for a spouse with Parkinson’s

“…Studies of caregivers for people with diseases other than Parkinson’s provide a useful guide for the ways in which group singing and other arts-based interventions can support family caregivers’ wellbeing (see Fancourt & Finn, 2019 for a summary). These studies have focused on caregivers for people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementias (e.g., Clark, Tamplin, & Baker, 2018; Rio, 2018), and caregivers for people with cancer (e.g., Fancourt, Warran, Finn, & Wiseman, 2019; Warran, Fancourt, & Wiseman, 2019) and aphasia (e.g., Mantie-Kozlowski, Mantie, & Keller, 2018). Taking Alzheimer’s disease and dementias as an example, research has demonstrated that group singing can:…”

“…These studies have focused on caregivers for people with Alzheimer's disease and dementias (e.g. Rio, 2018;Clark et al, 2018), caregivers for people with cancer (e.g. Warran et al, 2019) and aphasia (e.g.…”

Musicoterapia e doença de Alzheimer: um estudo com cônjuges cuidadores

“…Os estudos deClair (2002) eHanser (2011) avaliaram principalmente os casais neste formato, mas também incluíram outras díades. Por outro lado, as pesquisas deBerger (2004),Rio (2018), Ugur (2018) eTamplin (2018) envolveram idosos com demência e cuidadores familiares e/ou formais. O estudo de Chatterton (2010) versou sobre uma revisão sistemática acerca da utilização do canto no tratamento da demência, e detectou trabalhos que também focalizaram essas díades.…”