Singing Supported Activities of Daily Living for Persons Living with Dementia who are Resistive to Care

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a non-pharmacological intervention, Singing Supported Activities of Daily Living (SSADL),on resistiveness to care in persons with dementia. This intervention consists of caregivers singing along with pre-recorded patient preferred music during the provision of care during morning routines. Up to 90% of people living with dementia suffer from behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. One manifestation of this is "resistiveness to care," meaning that the person with dementia withstands or opposes the efforts of a caregiver to provide care. Because pharmacological therapies are not particularly effective for the management of Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) and in fact may cause adverse side effects, safe and effective non-pharmacological interventions are needed in the management of BPSDs. Participants were assessed for their preferred music in two ways: 1) their family was interviewed to ascertain the patient's music history and preferences, and 2) the patients underwent an in-person assessment with the PI, testing their responsiveness to a variety of decades and genres of music. A personalized playlist was developed consisting of music that evoked positive responses from participants. This playlist was played in the background as the professional caregiver sang along while performing morning care routines. The Resistiveness to Care Scale (RTC) (Mahoney, 2000) was used to monitor resistiveness levels, and qualitative data was collected about the experience. Quantitative data from the RTC scale was inconclusive, due to small sample size, insufficient observation time and inconsistent daily patient participation. Qualitative data found that professional caregivers felt strongly that background music helped them feel more Running head: comfortable singing as they provided care, and that patients were unusually cooperative on the days when the singing intervention was implemented. Though subjective data supports the effectiveness of the SSADL intervention, larger sample sizes and longer observation periods are necessary to gain a clearer picture of the effectiveness of this intervention.