The impact of caregivers’ singing on expressions of emotion and communication during morning care situations in persons with dementia
The number of persons with dementia (PWD) is increasing rapidly worldwide. Emotions and communication difficulties are common and non-pharmacological interventions should be considered. The inclusion criteria were diagnosed with severe dementia, living at nursing homes and a Mini–Mental State Examination (MMSE) score > 12. Music Therapeutic Caregiving (MTC), when a caregiver sings for or together with the PWD was conducted during morning care. Baseline and intervention sessions were videotaped during eight weeks. The PWDs’ expressions of resistant behavior were significantly reduced under the intervention situation[Gabriella2] . A significant (P=.000) reduction was observed for the unsociable nonverbal variable Does not respond to question. MTC significantly (P=.01) increased the mean score for the sociable nonverbal variable – Calm –Relaxed. For sociable verbal communication, significant differences were observed for the variables Use coherent communication (P=.012), Use relevant communication (P=.009), Responds to questions (P=.000), Humming (P=.004) and Singing (P=.000).