Musical Reminiscence Therapy:Global Solution for Improved Dementia Care

Nils de Mol van Otterloo, MSW

Doctoral Candidate

Memory Clinics & Hospice Care• Patients with dementia

in America and India provide insight into the benefit of music

• Experiences include: change in mood, improved interactions with clients, opportunity to engage caregivers with clients

Musical Reminiscence Therapy Demonstration – Kochi, India

Music in Dementia Assessment Scale (MidAS)Visual Analog Scale:

• Interest• Response• Initiation• Involvement• Enjoyment

Source: McDermott, Orrell, Ridder

Memory is coded spacialy• The hippocampus is responsible for attributing

geographic detail to memory• Musical Memories are associated with the place

they happened

Source: Miller et al. (2013)

By knowing the history of clients it is possibletailor music play lists that engage them• This information can have important impact for

families, caregivers, nurses, and social workers

What is happening?• The normalization of medical progress• Music may offer a way forward for

dementia interventions• Musical Reminiscence Therapy (MRT) is

designed to be a best practice for dementia care

• Progress in dementia care in the next 10-20 years may have more to do with effective intervention strategies than medical breakthroughs

Sources: de Mol van Otterloo et al. (2016)de Mol van Otterloo & Kumar (2017)

MRT & International Dementia Strategies• Economical interventions for care• Improving the lives of family and caregivers• MRT functions via basic neurological principals

and can be implemented globally• MRT is an intervention that can improve the lives

of patients and caregivers

TODAY!

Discussion and conclusion: • MRT makes it possible to effect identical neurological

responses with clients from entirely different backgrounds.

• Popular music can produce similar affective responses, no matter where patients are from and where they are now.

• This intervention is cheap, and easy to train healthcare workers to produce dramatic improvements in patient and caregiver lifestyle.

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Contact: demolvan@usc.edu