St Hedwig Nursing Home

Baroque music program

St Hedwig Nursing Home provides high care to 75 residents including residents with dementia who also display complex behavioural issues, such as wandering, yelling, verbal and physical aggression. Residents with dementia are accommodated mainly on the first floor of the nursing home.

The home's annual resident/relative satisfaction survey in November 2004, highlighted a problem with the level of noise when residents became unsettled and restless during the afternoon. Staff commented that residents were almost "too difficult to handle", leaving them and other residents 'edgy' and 'stressed' and that the first floor was not a pleasurable place to work.

A solution to this increasingly unsettling situation was discovered in an article published in the Australiasian Journal on Ageing, highlighting the positive effects of ambient baroque music on patients with dementia. The researcher, Dr Helm, was contacted to provide more details and following further investigation, St Hedwig commenced a trial study implementing the baroque music program, with the aim of decreasing the occurrence of challenging behaviours.

Ambient baroque music (late 17th to early 18th century) including Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Telemann was piped through our internal PA system. This quiet background music was played between 3 and 7pm every afternoon and could be heard in all common areas and individual residents' rooms.

The effectiveness of this program was evaluated with behaviour charts, surveys, benchmarking results and positive feedback letters from staff and relatives. Residents were observed to respond well to the baroque music program showing a decrease in their previously challenging behaviours, and an overall decrease in the noise level was achieved.

Additionally, residents were able to participate in individual activities, such as doll therapy and puzzles as well as group activities, which they were previously unable to focus on due to their constant restlessness and agitation. Meaningful activities have often been associated with an improved quality of life.

The comparison of seven months of aggressive episodes before and after the introduction of the baroque music program showed a decrease in aggressive episodes by 70.6%, suggesting that baroque music was an effective tool to modify residents' aggressive behaviours.

Relatives commented on changes observed with other residents as 'not so intrusive anymore', 'modified behaviour' and 'peaceful', while staff claimed greater job satisfaction following the introduction of the program.

The baroque music program is now a cost-effective, non-labour intensive program, which St Hedwig routinely runs in the afternoons. New residents suffering from dementia can immediately benefit from the program following admission leading to an uncomplicated and shorter settling in period.

The baroque music program has confirmed a therapeutic effect by improving the challenging  behaviours in residents suffering from dementia. It has served as a successful alternative treatment for an illness which has no cure.