A care-staff delivered music intervention to address patient and staff wellbeing within a Specialist Advanced Dementia unit

Background and Aims 

1. establish the preliminary effectiveness of the MATCH strategies on BPSD of patients;
2. test if the hospital-adapted MATCH Music Training Program was understandable, useful, acceptable, and adequately trained professional caregivers to integrate the MATCH strategies;
3. to identify enablers and barriers for the implementation of MATCH within a hospital setting
4. to estimate the impact of integrating MATCH in patient care on staff job satisfaction, retention, sense of burden, and general well-being.

What We Did

We carried out a research project to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of an online Music Intervention Training Program within a long-stay unit for people with severe dementia. Staff completed the program and administered the intervention to patients, over 8 weeks. The outcome on patient symptoms was measured by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Questionnaire (NPI-Q) and Cornel Scale for Depression in Dementia. Knowledge gained by the staff was measured using a 25-item multiple-choice knowledge assessment. Staff job satisfaction was measured using the Measure of Job Satisfaction (MJS). Staff retention was measured by analysing the change in average days of sick leave from pre-trial to post-trial for the staff. The staffs’ sense of burden was measured using the objective burden subscale of the Professional Care Team Burden Scale-Objective Burden Subscale (PCTB). General wellbeing was measured using the 7-item Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMBS). The acceptability of the MATCH training was measured using the reduced version (3-item) Acceptability E-Scale (AES) evaluated the acceptability of the MATCH training program by staff self-report post-trial.

Outcomes

The NPI-Q scores decreased pre to post-intervention and were clinically meaningful on severity, agitation and frontal score, with no change for mood score. The Cornell Scale for Depression indicated a non-significant increase in depression. The Acceptability E-Scale was above the threshold score (80%) indicating that the MATCH Training was acceptable to staff. There was no change from pre to post-intervention in the training evaluation score, of job satisfaction, wellbeing, professional burden or staff sick leave.

Impact on Aged Care and Workforce 

The Music Training Program and its implementation is feasible, acceptable, impacts dementia symptoms, and can potentially reduce medication use.

Resources Developed 

The MATCH Program is still in development. For further information, please contact Felicity Baker.

Next Steps

The next step is to test the study at multiple sites.