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.
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.
How MUSIC & MEMORY℠ Plays a Special Role in Veterans Care Communities
Music & Memory In the News
Volunteering for Music & Memory
Music & Memory Updates
A Mother’s Legacy Inspires a Benefit Concert for Music & Memory
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.
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:
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:
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:
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.
This course is designed to increase access to dementia-capable care for long term care and community based providers. It includes content from the 2018 Dementia Care Practice Recommendations. Training module topics are as follows: 1. Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias 2. Positive Communication 3. Successful Strategies for Dementia Related Behaviors 4. Helping with Hygiene and… Read More
This 6-week, 6 session webinar series provides MDS section-by-section coding guidance under PDPM and insights for optimal data collection, supportive documentation, and consistent coding accuracy. This series will review key MDS sections under PDPM. Reduce the learning curve for clinical reimbursement staff and drive PDPM coding accuracy and compliance with this MDS webinar series. MDS… Read More
This course is designed to increase access to dementia-capable care for long term care and community based providers. It includes content from the 2018 Dementia Care Practice Recommendations. Training module topics are as follows: 1. Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias 2. Positive Communication 3. Successful Strategies for Dementia Related Behaviors 4. Helping with Hygiene and… Read More
Our 69th Annual Conference theme is Together… Join our community of aging professionals as we come together around our common goal – expanding the possibilities for Washington seniors. Let’s make progress together by exchanging ideas and experiences with colleagues, while exploring bold new approaches. Let’s continue working together – innovating, serving, and elevating our field. Together, we can! More Pat… Read More
Press Release – DSHS: Office of Communications OLYMPIA – The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has awarded nearly $1.5 million in grants that will improve the lives of nursing home residents and provide the staff that serve them with access to additional training. The grants are funded by the Centers for Medicare &… Read More
This rule looks to limit provider taxes levied by states on Medicaid providers that are used to maximize federal matching funds (sometimes called FMAP). Washington uses the Safety Net Assessment (SNA) in this way. Some states currently use provider taxes that are higher for high Medicaid facilities and lower for low Medicaid facilities. The intent… Read More
A spry woman who danced to Big Band music at her 90th birthday bash, 
