Music Interventions for Dementia and Depression in Elderly care

Group Music Therapy (GMT) will be provided for participants allocated to the first intervention. Groups will comprise of between 7-10 participants. Sessions will be 45 minutes in length, led by a registered music therapist, and the groups will be closed groups (group membership will be fixed throughout the 6-month intervention period). Participants allocated to this condition will partake in 13 weeks GMT held twice per week for the first 13 weeks followed by a further 13 weeks of GMT once per week. Each participant will first receive an individual music therapy assessment delivered by a registered music therapist. This will involve the music therapist sourcing information about the participant’s preferred music via staff and relatives. The music therapist will then explore playing a range of these songs to identify the types of responses the participant gives to each. Music that the participant is particularly responsive to will be noted and used in subsequent music therapy sessions. Groups in the second intervention, Recreational Choir Singing (RCS), will comprise of at least 10 participants (i.e. 15 – 20). Each session will be 45 minutes in duration and will be led by a musician with choir leading skills and a music degree. In contrast to GMT, the RCS groups may be open (i.e. participants not eligible to enrol in the study but who wish to participate in the choir may join the group). Participants allocated to the RCS group will partake in 13 weeks of recreational choir singing twice per week followed by a further 13 weeks of group recreational choir singing once per week. RCS focuses on singing participant-selected songs akin to a choir context but without the expectation of preparing for a performance. The core principle of RCS is to sing familiar songs in a quasi choir setting, which provides a familiar musical environment for people to experience connectedness with others and enjoyment of music making in a group. The third intervention combines GMT and RCS, and participants allocated to this condition will partake in 13 weeks of GMT twice per week and RCS twice per week followed by a further 13 weeks of GMT once per week and RCS once per week. Each session of GMT and RCS will be 45 minutes in duration.