Music and Dementia: The Experience of SOUND, a Non-Pharmacological Intervention for Older People with Dementia in Italy, Portugal and Romania

Arts and music-based non-pharmacological interventions may play an important role in improving well-being and reducing the severity of behavioural disorders of people with dementia. The latter is a worldwide public health issue bringing with itself a variety of social consequences e.g. stigma and social exclusion.

The SOUND project, funded by the Erasmus+ programme (contract 2021-1-IT02-KA220-ADU-000033494), designed a music-based intervention for older people with dementia and tested it in Italy, Portugal and Romania, between October 2023 and January 2024, by involving 41 older people with dementia attending day-care centres or care facilities in 12 music activities sessions. The effects of the intervention were assessed at baseline, at the end and after two weeks from the end via psychometric tools e.g. the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the WHO-5 items and the Frontal Assessment Battery. Every session was also observed both live (through observation guidelines) and ex-post (through video recordings). Quantitative data were statistically analysed and qualitative ones systematised in field notes and diaries, were content analysed.

Music activities improved participants’ well-being and mood, decreased aggressiveness and agitation and helped the maintenance of cognitive capabilities over time. Music was a powerful means for expressing emotions and maintain the self-identity in older people with dementia. Music hid the cognitive impairment for a while and broke the wall of silence that entrapped people with dementia.

Music has brought beauty into places of healing, becoming itself a means of healing. These results highlight the urgency of bringing music to care facilities and home of older persons.