Making Connections Thru Music
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Volunteer Led Making Connections Thru Music, Staff Led Making Connections Thru Music.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Dementia, Alzheimer Disease, Vascular Dementia. Basic parameters: 18 years — 103 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Official title
Making Connections Thru Music: A Group Music Therapy-Based Intervention for Persons With Dementia
Overview
Healthcare systems around the world, including within the United States, have long-established shortages of trained caregivers. The American Health Care Association states that "the health care system has experienced a shortage of trained caregivers for critical roles for some time." This scarcity directly impacts the 45,800 Long-Term Care (LTC) communities throughout the U.S. Concurrent with this staff shortage, more than half of LTC residents have some form of dementia. These two issues create a serious public health concern, since dementia is associated with a variety of behavioral expressions, such as aggression, anxiety, and agitation. Behavioral expressions of dementia can be successfully managed with the use of tailored, psychosocial interventions and communication support. Unfortunately, existing staff shortages make the facilitation of such interventions challenging. One powerful and often-overlooked approach to ameliorating staffing shortages involves the utilization of retired volunteers to facilitate interventions for persons with dementia (PWD). Based on the nearly universal love of music and a promising pilot study, the product to be developed and tested in this STTR will build upon the combined prior work of the Principal Investigators. Making Connections Thru Music (MCTM), an urgently needed product, will enable retired volunteers to facilitate an evidence-based music and discussion intervention with PWD. MCTM aims to improve engagement, enhance quality of life, and reduce behavioral expressions in PWD. The intervention will consist of two main components: (1) a comprehensive online training course for volunteers, which will provide a general overview of dementia, demonstrate effective communication strategies to use with PWD, and instruct volunteers to effectively facilitate MCTM sessions, and (2) an app containing a structured MCTM intervention protocol and toolkit, which will be the means by which volunteers facilitate MCTM. MCTM will be marketed to LTC communities.
Interventions
- Behavioral Volunteer Led Making Connections Thru Music
Volunteer led Group music therapy-based intervention - Behavioral Staff Led Making Connections Thru Music
Staff led Group music therapy-based intervention
Primary outcome measures
- Menorah Park Engagement Scale [Time frame: Baseline (weeks 1-4) Treatment (weeks 5-12)]
Secondary outcome measures (3)
- Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale [Time frame: Baseline (weeks 1-4) Treatment (weeks 5-12)]
- Geriatric Depression Scale- Short Form. Scores can range from zero to 15. Higher scores suggest a worse outcome [Time frame: Baseline (weeks 1-4) Treatment (weeks 5-12)]
- Neuropsychiatric Inventory - Nursing Home. [Time frame: Baseline (weeks 1-4) Treatment (weeks 5-12)]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Volunteers must be aged 55+ and speak/read conversational English.
- Staff participants must be at least 18 years old, work within a residential care facility participating in the study, and speak and read English.
Exclusion criteria
- Volunteers will be excluded if they are diagnosed with dementia based on self-report and/or if they score 23 or lower on theMini Mental State Exam (MMSE; Folstein et al., 1975). Such a score would be indicative of possible cognitive impairment.
- Staff members will be excluded if they work third shift only. PWD Residents with dementia must be diagnosed with dementia (any type), score 10 or above on the MMSE, be aged 65+, and speak/read conversational English.
- PWD will be excluded if they show signs of rapid physical or cognitive decline (based upon staff report or as evidenced by information gained during screening).
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- The Hearthstone Institute, LLC — Winchester
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06079216 · HearthstoneI