Music is an evidence-based necessity and needs to be available for everyone living with dementia by 2020

The Music for Dementia 2020 website is being launched on Wednesday 9 January and will be the first ever central information hub for advice, evidence-based research, and expertise on why music, in its rich variety of forms, is essential for people living with dementia and their carers. Bringing the music and dementia sectors together, this website is a first of its kind in demonstrating the importance of music in dementia care.

Responding directly to the ILC-UK’s Commission report published in January, ‘What would life be, without a song or dance, what are we: a report from the commission on dementia and music’, / demonstrates that this campaign is truly focused on enhancing quality of life for people living with dementia and those who care for them, by making access to information about music services easier. ‘The website is a living, dynamic source of information’, says Grace Meadows, Programme Director for Music for Dementia 2020. ‘Working with all the music, dementia, care and health communities, this site will be all encompassing and inclusive, and we want to encourage people to share their work with us so we can be making people aware of what musical activities are available in their communities and supporting access to them.’

For the 850,000 people currently living with dementia in the UK, there are 700,000 informal carers caring for them every day.[1] 63.5% of carers say they have had no or not enough support.[2] The Music for Dementia 2020 campaign aims to help change this through ensuring carers are also supported to access musical activities. Without our carers, paid and unpaid, our society would be unable to cope with the strain of dementia. Dementia is the leading healthcare crisis of our time and the leading cause of death in the UK [3]. With the cost of dementia in the UK expected to more than double in the next 25 years, from £26bn to £55n in 2040.[4] It has higher health and social care costs (£11.9bn) than cancer

The website promotes the wide range of musical activities available for people living with dementia, from how to compile a playlist through to advice on how to find a music therapist. Music enriches and supports personalised care and as the key source of information about music, the website explains how to make music part of your every day routine.

Research shows, that when used appropriately through a personalised approach, music can make the delivery of care more effective and efficient, enabling carers to have more time to create meaningful moments with the people they are caring for. Music enhances people’s experiences of using services and helps people living with dementia to be seen for who they are, beyond their dementia.

In 2015, the then health secretary, Jeremy Hunt said the government wanted to make the UK the most dementia-friendly country in the world by 2020.[5] The aim of the Music for Dementia 2020 campaign is a direct response to this challenge by working to ensure that everyone living with dementia has access to music by 2020.

The whole experience of a care home changes when you introduce meaningful music programmes. As well as being enjoyable and mood enhancing, it can develop the skills and confidence of care professionals as part of their day-to-day person-centred approach to care, support identity, relationships, and community and add a valuable new resource to the care tool kit. Music enables people living with dementia to be more than recipients of care, it enables them to contribute to their communities and explore their own creativity and musicality.

Live Music Now, a charity providing live musical experiences for a diverse range of people, recently published their ‘Live Music in Care report: Music benefits the whole care home and contributes to person-centred care’ report recommending that live music should be essential in all UK care homes. Evan Dawson, Executive Director, says ‘The potential benefits of music to individuals and society are significant, underpinned by a clear and respected evidence base.

https://www.musicfordementia2020.com is structured for interactive use by carers, health professionals, practitioners, commissioners, academics and researchers – and most importantly, people living with dementia. It incorporates insightful case studies, blogs, interactive short films, and advice and guidance from across the health, care, dementia and music sectors. The site is a hub for collaboration and connecting people in an easy to access and view format for all.

The website follows the recent announcement from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock MP, on the inclusion of musical activities, including music therapy, in care for people living with dementia to help reduce and manage dementia symptoms.

Baroness Sally Greengross, International Longevity Centre-UK (ILC), “ILC very much welcomes the musicfordementia2020 website, which responds directly to recommendations made by our Commission on Dementia and Music.

Analysis by the ILC, undertaken for the Commission, showed that music helps to significantly minimise some of the symptoms of dementia, such as agitation, and can help to tackle anxiety and depression. Moreover, evidence suggests that music helps us to reconnect with loved ones with dementia.

However, at present we know that too many people are missing out on the opportunity to engage in music-based activities. Bringing together learning and information about activities in this website will be a vital first step to widening access and opportunity for everyone.”

The Department of Health and Social Care’s recommendation that GPs prescribe personal playlists along with other forms of musical activities to reduce the symptoms of dementia, such as agitation, apathy and psychological distress comes from compelling evidence. There may be as many as 320,000 people with dementia in residential settings who do not have access to meaningful arts provision.[6] Says Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive, Care England, “Music can evoke memories, provide opportunities to share experiences and connect people to families, friends and other residents. Through shared memories and experiences music can enhance the quality of life for everyone who need care and support services”

It is thought that around 566,700 people with dementia live in the community and it is not currently known how many of these people are able to access music-based interventions. [7]

Says Grace Meadows, Programme Director, Music for Dementia 2020, ‘For someone living with dementia, music can be the lifeline, the connector that stops them from being locked away in a lonely and isolated world. Music, in its many forms; recorded, live, participatory, interactive, therapy, has the power to transform lives. There is some excellent work happening across the country; in people’s homes, the community, care settings, hospitals and hospices. However, this is not happening everywhere across the UK. This website is the major first step in helping to ensure that everyone living with dementia has access to the music that matters to them.”

Putting music on the social prescribing menu for people living with dementia

Grace Meadows, Programme Director of The Utley Foundation’s Music for Dementia 2020 campaign to make music available for everyone living with dementia by 2020, strongly supports the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock’s vision to make music available for people living with dementia through social prescribing, and says music is the golden thread of care.

“Well executed social prescribing, which builds on and makes better use of what is already available, will be welcomed by the music, health and social care sectors who are crying out for music for dementia to be recognised at every level”, says Meadows. “The Secretary of State has made it clear that person-centred care is what is needed, and music enables this because each and every one of us has a relationship and connection with music. For someone living with dementia, music can be the lifeline, the connector that stops them being locked away in a lonely and isolated world of dementia.’

Music brings a wealth of possibilities into how society supports and cares for people living with dementia. Music has the ability to enliven, invigorate and stimulate and offers a powerful resource to the health and care sectors in supporting how care is provided. Music can enrich and enhance care, affording opportunities to create meaningful shared moments, connections and bring joy back into the lives of those living with dementia and all those who care for them. Currently, the health and care sectors are facing extraordinary levels of demands and pressures, as we find ourselves living longer, but not necessarily aging well. This can cause our workforces to become exhausted and close to burnout, physically and mentally, impacting on the quality of care delivered. This is where music has a fundamental role to play in transforming care.

The Department of Health and Social Care’s recommendation that GPs prescribe personal playlists along with other forms of musical activities to reduce the symptoms of dementia, such as agitation, apathy and psychological distress comes from compelling evidence. There may be as many as 320,000 people with dementia in residential settings who do not have access to meaningful arts provision¹. It is thought that around 566,700 people with dementia live in the community and it is not currently known how many of these people are able to access music-based interventions.² Now is the time to take meaningful action to spread the benefits of music throughout our communities in the UK.

The Utley Foundation, in partnership with the ILC-UK produced the Commission on Dementia in Music, ’What would life be without a song or dance, what are we?’ which was launched in the House of Lords in January of this year. The campaign is directly responding to the recommendations outlined through the formation of national taskforce made up of practitioners, experts, academics, leaders, researchers and most importantly people living with dementia from across the UK to make music available for all people living with dementia.

The understanding of how music effects not only the brain, but our memory, physiology and psychology continues to be developed through a dynamic and growing evidence base led by leading international experts here in the UK. As highlighted by the Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock, the evidence is compelling; music helps to reduce agitation, tension, depression and anxiety. Music can bring a person back into the here and now, enabling them to connect with loved ones and their world around them. It supports people living with dementia to reconnect with themselves, their identity and creativity. It can enable and empower, and supports people living with dementia to be contributors to their communities and not just recipients of care.

Sarah Metcalfe, CEO of UK charity Playlist For Life says, “A personal playlist can improve the quality of life of someone living with dementia and help them to reconnect with loved ones. And making a playlist is a great way to get to know someone better – everyone should give it a go!”

Music, in its many forms; recorded, live, participatory, interactive, therapeutic, has the power to transform lives through enhancing and enriching care. Executive Director of LiveMusicNow, Evan Dawson says, ‘The potential benefits of music to individuals and society are significant, underpinned by a clear and respected evidence base. However, music and the arts are not a panacea. For them to be effective and sustained requires investment in training and support. People benefit the most when they are included in the creative process as active participants, using appropriate techniques – this requires informed choices to be made.”

Meadows says, “What we want to achieve with this campaign is that every person living with dementia has access to music, a menu of music choices, from personal playlists, performances, interactive participatory music sessions, concerts, to music therapy. The beauty and strength of music is in its diversity and adaptability. By putting music at the heart of the social prescribing menu for people living with dementia, we can use it to enhance and enrich person-centred care.”

Music may be dropping off the school curriculum, but it is making a powerful impression on how we can support and care for those living with dementia.

In July 2017 the ILC- UK, in partnership with the Utley Foundation, established the world’s first high level Commission to investigate the role of music in helping with the prevention, management, treatment and care for people with dementia. This ground-breaking report will be launched at the House of Lords during an evening reception on 18 January 2018.

This pioneering project assembled expert neuroscientists, music therapists, charities, start-ups and academics, including Professor Alistair Burns, NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Dementia, to serve as Commissioners to gather evidence on how music-based activities can change the lives of people living with dementia and their families. The report shows that music can increase communication and decrease anxiety, agitation and depression in dementia sufferers regardless of their gender, ethnicity or background.

The report has benefitted from the input and contributions from a wide variety of individuals across the music and dementia spaces. It establishes what we currently know about the impact of music on dementia as well as considering how our ageing society can benefit from this under-utilised therapeutic intervention.

To mark the launch of this leading report, the ILC and the Utley Foundation are hosting an evening reception in the Cholmondeley Room and Terrace, House of Lords. We are hoping to be joined by a senior Minister, as well as a celebrity guest, MPs, policy makers and journalists. We will be showing a short film on music and dementia as well as hearing a performance from the Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘Singing for the Brain’ choir (a choir composed of people with dementia and their carers).

Baroness Sally Greengross, Chief Executive, ILC-UK said:

“Despite growing evidence of the value of music for people with dementia, we are not seeing enough being done to improve access to appropriate music-based activities. When talking about specialist music therapy, current availability only equates to roughly 30 seconds per week per person with dementia, meaning that very few individuals are benefitting from this valuable intervention”.

Sally Bowell, Research Fellow, ILC-UK said:

“Music should not just be considered a nice-to-have, or an ‘add-on’. Music has tangible, evidence-based benefits for people with dementia, such as helping to minimise the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, tackling depression and anxiety, and, importantly, helping to improve quality of life. We want to raise awareness of these important benefits and rally organisations and individuals alike to help champion access to music for people with dementia.”

Neil Utley, The Utley Foundation said:

“People with dementia often live in a silent world. Yet music can bring a person back to life. The ability to connect to music is an innate aspect of being human; having a diagnosis of dementia need not undermine this”.

To download the full report, please click here.

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