How Music can help in dementia care

Numerous therapies can help people stay alert, focused, happy, and healthy. Physical therapy can strengthen muscles and increase mobility, while speech therapy targets communication issues.

However, the uplifting nature of music is a universal aid in changing ones mood from mellow and calm, to excited and active. The power of music can evoke fond memories, and help decrease anxiety and depression. Cheerful tones and catchy beats can lift moods naturally and can promote a positive disposition further reducing stress.

Music, with its natural rhythms, can stimulate movement and help residents move their feet and hands if they’re dancing. It can promote cognitive function too with many studies showing that music, songs, or playing an instrument can stimulate certain areas of the brain and sometimes improve memory exercising speech skills by singing. It’s linked to memory and can allow residents to enjoy its soothing and melodic benefits – it’s hard to forget the lyrics to your favourite song, or a tune you were listening to on holiday with family or a melody you heard while you were out with friends.

It would be a caring gesture if loved ones created playlists of songs or musical shows that are meaningful and familiar to residents with dementia, such as songs from their youth or their favourite genre of music.

When Signature care homes hold their musical nights and shows, they’re conducted in group settings to increase social connections for all. It also enables everyone to listen and be present in the moment, later helping more engagement in their everyday life. The carers and residents often build social connections by singing along, playing instruments and dancing.

While dementia affects various parts of the brain that control memory, behaviour and language, compositions are known to strengthen some neural connections in the brain, which aids the development of cognitive abilities. These disruptions spread over time, but the area where musical memory is stored remains relatively untouched until the last stages of dementia.