“Music alone shall live, never shall die.” Watch care home manager, Coni talk about feeding the spirits of the residents in her care with music.
Continue readingInterview with Care Home Manager, Coni – the impact of music on residents with dementia
Music for my Mind and Quantum Care re-start study into effects of music in dementia care
MFMM is delighted to re-start a study using novel tech to measure effects of personalised music on people living
with dementia.
A Focus on the Reminiscence Bump – Publication.
Part 5 of our blog-series looks at writing and publishing the paper and how we can enact this information in other areas of MFMM’s research.
Continue readingA Focus on the Reminiscence Bump – Analysis.
Part 4 of our blog-series looks at drafting the paper, our pitfalls and failings, it coming together and the final discovery (and why this is important).
Continue readingA Focus on the Reminiscence Bump – Action.
Part 3 of our blog-series looks at how we set up the musical survey, the decisions we made, and the interactions we had from participants.
Continue readingA Focus on the Reminiscence Bump – The First Steps.
Part 2 of our blog-series looks at the first steps we took to solve the problem of proving the well-known fact that music from a person’s youth is likely to be better remembered in old age.
Continue readingThe magic of music in dementia care
Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears – it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more – it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity. – Oliver Sacks
Continue readingArts and Healthcare
Scope of Arts and Health: Arts in healthcare embraces many practices including arts in medicine, design of hospitals, the arts and humanities in medical education, the arts in palliative care, creative arts therapies and arts applications with children and older people. These programmes are now found in a high proportion of health care settings: hospital wards, premature baby units, community clinics, traumatic stress and mental health facilities and in public health. Survey evidence shows these initiatives are spreading.
Evaluation studies claim a considerable array of benefits may flow from such initiatives, although in the words of the US Arts in Healthcare Society, research in the area remains ‘anecdote rich and data poor’
(Arts in Healthcare. State of the Field Report. Arts in Healthcare Society, USA, 2009,1-20).
Benefits claimed include:
• Improvements in patient wellbeing, patient and carer stress levels and mood
• Significant health outcomes e.g. improved lung function and lower blood pressure
• Reduced health care costs (less medication use & consultations per health outcome)
• Greater community engagement in health promotion and wellbeing programmes
• Improved end of life care for patients and their relatives
• Improvement in morale and retention of health care staff