Background: At Extendicare Guildwood, a community long-term care home in Toronto, the program director decided to expand the music program and employ the evidence that Dan Cohen utilized in his Music and Memory Project. Another dimension was the addition of the 4Life Foundation DJ Program youth to provide music expertise.
Objectives: To provide personalized music for the residents on a regular basis and observe their reactions. To engage the broader community, in particular 'at-risk' youth, to create an intergenerational communication.
Methods: A search of the ALOIS database for studies on music and dementia produced 56 studies offering evidence on the benefit of music therapy. A resident’s family donated iPods and CDs to Guildwood, which allowed a wide variety of music to be downloaded for the project. Personalized music folders were created for each resident by the 4Life Foundation volunteers.
Results: Once weekly in group settings, residents experienced personalized music through headphones. The young men from the 4Life Foundation became part of the volunteer group at Guildwood and formed relationships with the music program participants. The residents who experienced the music intervention showed changes in affect/mood and changes in their demeanor and behaviour were observed by staff. Agitation in dementia patients was reduced during the intervention. Within 60 days of implementation of this project at the Guildwood site, Extendicare Canada committed to training and certifying the program directors in all 70 of their long-term care homes in Ontario to deliver the Music and Memory Project to their 10,000 residents.
Conclusions: The studies in the ALOIS database are a valuable resource for improving care and quality of life in a long-term care setting.