Development of a person-centered caregiver singing model for formal caregivers of people living with dementia in South Africa

Person‐centred caregiver singing for people living with dementia in South Africa: A mixed methods evaluation of acceptability, feasibility, and professional caregivers' experiences

“…This is also noted in previous findings. 34 Despite reservations about the effectiveness of person-centred training programmes and the challenges of applying principles into practice, 42,63,64 our findings suggest that PCCS may be a unique, concrete, and applicable vehicle for the delivery of person-centred care in which practical music therapy skills encourages better attunement to residents and their needs. Our findings align with recognised outcomes of effective dementia training: a positive shift in caregivers' attitude towards dementia and people living with dementia, 65 effective emotional regulation approaches for caregivers, 60 and the creation of a caring, social environment.…”

“…Their relationships seemed to move from task-orientated, which diminishes personhood, 61 to more aligned with the VIPS principles defined by Brooker 10 : PCCS helped caregivers adopt an individualised approach; better understand their perspective; and create a positive social environment. This contributes to current research on PCCS, live music training outcomes, music therapy skills-sharing 34,52 and attunement in dementia care. 62 Additionally, caregivers advocated for other care homes and caregivers to adopt PCCS, acknowledging it as useful and effective in various daily caring contexts.…”

“…We developed a 20-item questionnaire inf ormed by the theoretical frameworks and our previous work. 34 Quantitative data were collected using ratings from a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).…”

“…32 Person-centred caregiver singing (PCCS) is a caregiver-delivered live music intervention model that seeks to support formal caregivers in their provision of person-centred care to people living with dementia. 34 It is defined as singing in a manner that employs various prosodic and empathic musical elements (the rhythm, tone, volume, tempo, intonation, emotion reflected in voice and language) to support communication and promote feelings of connection, safety, and validation to enhance the delivery of person-centred care. 34 The PCCS workshop is facilitated by a music therapist and aims to build caregivers' knowledge and insights into dementia, person-centred care, affordances of music, and attunement using basic music therapy skills.…”

“…Results from an action research study showed that PCCS was a helpful resource that eased care and created a positive caring environment by enhancing caregivers' capabilities, residents' emotional wellbeing, and the closeness in their relationship through effective communication. 34 Our study built on the existing PCCS findings and examined the acceptability of the PCCS protocol with a larger cohort of formal caregivers across several care homes in South Africa. Our aim was to advocate and support the implementation of PCCS in care homes in South Africa and more broadly by addressing the following questions:…”