The Power of Music Provides Comfort to Those With Dementia

A two-year study is focusing on caregivers and participants with dementia who agree to monthly tests to determine how music can improve mood, mental functioning, and psychological measures in participants, reports CBC News . "When you have dementia, it becomes even more important to have an activity in which you participate. You become part of a community," says University of Victoria Professor Debra Sheets. "It's not about therapy, it's about maintaining an identity and a sense of who you are. Where you're not treated as someone who's got dementia." The study is underwritten by the Alzheimer's Society Research Society and the Pacific Alzheimer's Research Foundation. Sheets is collaborating with a team that includes colleagues from the university's departments of psychology, sociology, and the school of music. The project involves caregivers and persons with dementia participating in a choir, as well as high school students from St. Andrew's Regional High School and Pacific Christian School in Victoria. According to Sheets, both caregivers and people with dementia in the choir showed some improvement in their ability to recall words from a list. "The neat thing about music is it taps into a part of your brain that's often not touched as much by dementia," she notes.