“Opening Our Time Capsule”—Creating an Individualized Music and Other Memory Cues Database to Promote Communication Between Spouses and People With Dementia During Visits to a Nursing Home

Abstract

Background: Family members play a critical role in caring for people with dementia, and their involvement in care continues even after their loved ones are placed in long-term care facilities. The dynamics of family involvement following institutionalization are complex and challenging. The strain on caregivers does not cease and communication difficulties are a major barrier due to deteriorating language abilities as a result of dementia. Also, caregivers' involvement has implications on the quality of life of both the older adult and his family members.Objective: To help alleviate caregivers' burden during visiting hours, by promoting communication opportunities. The program included the creation of an individualized database using personal music and photos that present life episodes.Methods: A qualitative research was used to explore spouses' experience during visits and the process of creating and using the individualized database. Participants included three women who regularly visited their partners who had dementia and resided in a nursing home. The first phase included creating an individualized database for each couple. In the second phase, four meetings were conducted, each woman with her partner, utilizing the database on a tablet. A case study research design was used and various types of data were collected and analyzed. The data included interview reports (pre-post intervention), preparation meetings reports, spouses' recorded reactions at the end of each of the four visits, and the music therapist's written log during the program.Results: All documented data revealed the difficulties, mostly the communication barrier, encountered by the three women during their visits to the nursing home. All reported that using the individualized database helped them to find ways to communicate with their partners, relive shared past experiences, and alleviate the stress and feelings of disconnection during visits.Conclusions: Forming a bridge between past and present via individualized music and photos databases can be helpful in bridging the gap between people with dementia in nursing homes and their family members.

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

“…The proposed program in this pilot study was formed based on the clinical expertise and relevant research in music therapy with dementia of the first author ( Dassa, 2018a , 2018b ; Dassa & Blum, 2016 ). Following the experience of the second author regarding home-based music therapy with dementia, and in light of similar programs in the literature as described above, the research team consulted and discussed the best way to implement music.…”

Technology-Driven Solutions to Prompt Conversation, Aid Communication and Support Interaction for People With Dementia and Their Caregivers: A Systematic Literature Review

“…In addition to reported effects on wellbeing, reminiscence can potentially increase interaction in longterm care (LTC) facilities, ultimately building relationships and increasing connections [17]. When using tablets as a third-party in social interactions, the intuitive design and variety of applications can offer both personalized and generic content in a manner that eases the introduction and maintaining of conversation topics, thus enhancing the social interaction [13][14][15][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

“…Utilizing technology as a social facilitator has the potential to increase both the frequency and duration of social interactions [19,22,25,31], and encourage more involvement of caregivers [21,37,44], positively in uencing the relationship between care recipient and carer [13,20,22,23,26,38,42].…”

“…A reduced burden of upholding conversation can have a bene cial in uence on the dyadic relationship, as exempli ed by the wives visiting their spouse in LTC facilities. They reported that using a tablet while interacting helped them in nding ways to communicate with their partners, something which alleviated stress and feelings of disconnection during visitations [20]. With the help of technology in social interactions, PwD are allowed to play a more equal part in conversations, as the device provided support by circumventing some of the memory issues that often deters communication efforts amongst PwD [13].…”

Biopsychological Effects of Social Participation on Aging: The Role of Identity-Affirming Music and the Arts

“…During this time, it is also important to involve caregivers if applicable, as they too can benefit from interactive, artistic programming. Indeed, social interventions can also provide caregivers with the opportunity to bond with their care recipient and to share their struggles with other carers (Baker et al, 2018;Clark et al, 2018;Dassa et al, 2018). As was observed during the reminiscence and music-making studies, caregivers enjoyed bonding with their care recipient through program activities.…”