Singing while caring for persons with dementia

Abstract

Persons with dementia (PWDs) can suffer from major cognitive impairment, but are known to retain an ability to express both negative and positive emotions. Negative expressed emotions and resistance make caregiving problematic. Music Therapeutic Caregiving (MTC) – when caregivers sing for or together with PWDs during care – has been shown to decrease PWDs' negative expressed emotions and resistance, and increase positive expressed emotions. This single case study included two cases, two women with severe dementia, and measures expressed emotions and expressions of resistiveness to care during “usual” morning care situations and morning care situations with MTC. Video observations were conducted resulting in four recordings of usual morning care and four recordings of morning care with MTC. For analysis, the Observed Emotion Rating Scale and Resistiveness to Care Scale were used. Results revealed that in both cases, expressions of resistant behavior and negative emotions decreased, while expressions of positive emotions increased during morning care situations with MTC. The authors conclude that MTC may be an effective method for caregivers to use to facilitate care situations with PWDs, and also a way for PWDs to experience care situations as less unpleasant, and more joyful.

Keywords:

• caregiver singing
• dementia
• intervention
• Observed Emotion Rating Scale
• Resistiveness to Care Scale

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the caregiver and the PWDs that participated in this study. Thanks also to Ms Caroline Sutton for the linguistic revision. This study is financed by a grant from Sparbanksstiftelsen Nya, Johanniterorden i Sverige, Västerås Stad, Demensförbundet and Märlardalen University, Swenden.