Working to Improve Dementia Care and Quality of Life

Designed to improve the lives of residents in skilled nursing facilities who suffer from Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders, LeadingAge Washington and the Music & Memory Project will provide personalized music to skilled nursing residents in approximately 45 participating communities during a two year period.

The project incorporates the nationally known Music & Memory℠ program which brings individualized music to residents in long-term care homes via Mp3 players. Since 2008, the program has been successfully implemented in thousands of long-term care facilities in the U.S. and Canada.

Music & Memory logo The Music & Memory℠ Grant is funded through CMS. The project is open to all LeadingAge Washington nursing home providers in Washington state. We now have forty-one SNF’s certified. Press Release.

For more information contact Pat Sylvia at psylvia@LeadingAgeWa.org

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Betty Reed A spry woman who danced to Big Band music at her 90th birthday bash, Betty Reed was a powerhouse.
A loyal Purdue alumna and lifelong fan of their women’s basketball team, Betty was, among her many accomplishments, one of the first women to enlist with the US Coast Guard SPARS during World War II; an Indiana farm wife and mother of three who helped her husband manage their 600 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat and livestock; and a well-read librarian until she retired at 75.

 

RESOURCES

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Care Community

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Additional Staff Training – Newly hired staff at certified organizations are eligible to attend the Music & Memory Certification webinar free of charge. Communities may send unlimited new staff/volunteers for training.

Registration for additional staff takes place in the Care Community website. To register, login to the Care Community and click on Training ~> M&M Certification (Send Additional Staff and to order a Community plaque). After registering, new staff will be emailed login information and instructions to join the certification webinar.

Music & Memory Certified Organizations

Organizations that complete the MUSIC & MEMORY® Certification Program are certified as providers of our personalized music program. Our certification ensures families that their loved ones will have access to the transformative, therapeutic benefits of personalized music and marks the organization’s commitment to person-centered care.

Get the most out of your Music & Memory program

We “highly” recommend you watch/share the below video links with your staff/family members:

Leadership – Get the Music & Memory Advantage

How can your organization get the most out of your Music & Memory program? Success starts at the top, with the full involvement of leadership. We’ve created this course to help busy administrators learn best practices for program rollout. It consists of a 12-minute video (above) and a user-friendly guidebook that explains the five steps for successful implementation. We’ve based this course on research conducted with six of our MUSIC & MEMORY® Certified Care Organizations, to offer you a field-tested, proven method to enhance the quality of care while meeting key strategic objectives:

  • Boost quality ratings
  • Strengthen competitive edge
  • Reduce antipsychotic use
  • Improve regulatory compliance
  • Foster teamwork across all departments
  • Improve staff retention and morale
  • Provide high quality, person-centered care

CNA — Introduction to Music & Memory 

Music & Memory is most successful when it’s a team effort. Every member of the care team has an important role to play. But nursing assistants are key to the mix because they spend the most time with residents in a very personal way. Not only do they witness the immediate benefits of personalized music, but also can play an essential role in helping to identify which songs have the most positive impact. In addition, they can observe and report when a resident would most benefit from listening to musical favorites—to help ease transitions, for example, or make dressing or bathing a more soothing activity.

The short video (above) shows why—in their own words–nursing assistants and other care team members value the benefits of personalized music for residents at MorseLife, a MUSIC & MEMORY® Certified Care Organization in West Palm Beach, Florida. Topics include:

  • Becoming a Music Detective
  • Storage & Hygiene
  • Enjoying the Music
  • Pass it On

MUSIC & MEMORY® for PT, OT, SLP

Therapists know the challenges of maximizing clinical outcomes – Music & Memory can help enhance their results with personalized music.

Music & Memory offers an established methodology that, when integrated into therapy, can improve client outcomes for a variety of real-life challenges drawn from the field, including:

  • Lack of engagement
  • Unmanaged behaviors
  • Multiple medical complexities
  • Extensive pain needs

Gait training for Parkinson’s patient using music.

Benefits of Personalized Music

Musical favorites tap deep emotional recall. That favorite song brings joy, eases pain, reduces stress, and can facilitate social connection. For family members, sharing a loved one’s music can enhance visits and deepen relationships that may have seemed lost, especially to dementia. For staff, personalized music provides an entryway to more meaningful relationships with those in their care — as well as a way to ease transitions, avoid challenging behaviors, and save time.

Again and again, care professionals tell us that our program is often life-changing for everyone involved:

  • At last, here is a way to give pleasure to people with advanced dementia.
  • Personalized music offers an enjoyable, fulfilling activity for those in dialysis, on vent, or bed-bound.
  • Listening to musical favorites increases cooperation and attention, and reduces resistance to care — a real boost for staff morale.
  • Personalized music reduces agitation and sundowning.
  • Beloved music enhances engagement and socialization, fostering a calmer social environment.
  • Music & Memory provides a valuable alternative to psychotropic medications.