Impact case study database

Influencing Policy and Practice

Based on her extensive research (Refs 1-4) and expertise in music therapy, Odell-Miller was invited to be a Commissioner for the National Commission on Music and Dementia (NCMD) [Source 1]. Submitting our research as evidence, and reviewing global research, resulted in the report [Source 1] which was launched and presented at the House of Lords in January 2018. As a direct result, the national campaign ‘Music4Dementia 2020’ was initiated, implementing recommendations including those highlighted by Odell-Miller, on strategies embedding music and music therapy throughout the dementia journey, improving reduction of dementia symptoms. In her testimonial letter [Source 2], the CEO of Music4Dementia highlights the links between Odell-Miller’s research and the influence of the research in developing policies such as rolling out music therapy in dementia care. For example, the individualised music therapy programmes using Odell-Miller’s original approach have now been implemented in care homes such as Methodist Homes Association (MHA), a large service provider of 83 care homes in the UK. NCMD worked with policy makers for health and public health, and with health commissioners to embed music and music therapy in the normal pathway of care for older people with dementia from diagnosis to treatment. Influenced by our research outcomes, MHA care homes have increased their music therapy team from 12 to 25, to create the largest music therapy team in care homes in the UK [Source 3], thereby enhancing the lives of people living with dementia and their carers.

An ongoing collaboration with MHA, which included Odell-Miller serving as an official consultant (2017-2018), has led to MHA changing policy and care provision to offer music therapy to 22,000 of its clients across 65 care homes since 2014, transforming quality of life including reduction of agitation and regulation of mood [Source 3]. This includes countrywide improvisational music therapy approaches, developed by Odell-Miller (Refs 1-4).

Odell-Miller and Hsu’s research (2015), and project evaluations from Together in Sound (TiS), and CIMTR’s music and brain research (Fachner 2019), were also included in BAMT’s submission to the NICE (2019) guidelines, resulting in the inclusion of music therapy in guidelines for dementia and older people’s quality of life, for the first time [Source 4]. This means that people living with dementia and their families and carers have a right to receive music therapy, and that it should be funded.

Raising profile of music therapy and changing public perceptions

We have further contributed to the firm embedding of a musical culture in care, devising more formal and short training courses for professional musicians, for example with the Britten Pears Foundation and Saffron Hall Trust. This is evident through our project Together in Sound [Source 5] and evidenced in Music4Dementia 2020 and BBC Music Day campaigns in 2019 and 2020. Odell-Miller participated on a panel about music for PWD on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour on 26.09.19 [Source 2]. Woman’s Hour generally draws an average of 3.7 million listeners a week. In addition, Odell-Miller and Hsu’s research contributed to the evidence base for the recent web resource for PWD called BBC Music Memories.

Direct impact on PWD is exhibited in the ongoing collaboration with Saffron Hall Trust and the resulting programme Together in Sound (TiS), led by Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Researchers Odell-Miller and Senior Lecturer Molyneux. In November 2020, a new film was launched about the project, with PWD and their companions leading the making of the film [Source 6]. The programme has been running since 2017 and around 35 dyads (PWD and their home-based partner, family companion, carer/friend) per year have received music therapy over that time. Discussing the success of TiS, the CEO of Saffron Hall Trust stated that “both carers and those living with dementia have registered extraordinarily high levels of satisfaction with the programme” [Source 2]. Carers and the PWD reported positive changes in lifestyle and relationship quality, finding the music therapy different to other activities. [Source 5]. As one carer said “The music is wonderful, excellent. We do Singing for the Brain (SB) as well and have been doing that since [my wife] was diagnosed. They are both great [SB and TiS], but this is different with so many aspects, improvisation, more creative, a bit of everything.” [Source 5]. The project has also been used to demonstrate the impact of Saffron Hall itself through an official evaluation by NESTA [Source 5], enabling Saffron Hall to access further funding and increase client numbers from 20 to 50 couples 2018-2020. The TiS project music therapy groups, including professional musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia, continued and pioneered online music therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic which participants described as a “lifeline” [Source 5]. The move online of the music therapy groups due to COVID-19 connected couples with each other during lockdown and isolation. The work was featured on prime time BBC1 national news in April 2020, with participants describing music therapy as an “uplifting experience”. This contributed to a national change in perception of PWD and of how to combat isolation at home during COVID-19 positively [Source 7], as evidenced by Odell-Miller and Fachner’s invitations to interview for three national newspaper reports on music and dementia between September-December 2020 [Source 7]. Participants in the project were able to musically interact playfully with one another, reducing isolation during lockdown and the pandemic. Similarly, CIMTR’s team led the international change in delivery to dyads at home of the music and reading interventions from in-person to online delivery, in the aforementioned international Homeside RCT trial (Ref. 4).

Earlier, music therapy researchers at ARU improved the profile of music therapy for PWD. For example, in 2015 approximately 300 people attended the first international public conference for music therapy and dementia, hosted at ARU. Chaired by Odell-Miller, in partnership with BAMT and MHA, the conference united third sector organisations in dementia care including Dementia UK, Live Music Now, HEE England and BAMT, and improved knowledge of music therapy [Source 8]. The importance of access to music for PWD was further highlighted in 2016 when Odell-Miller was awarded an OBE for services to music therapy including research, resulting in publicity including conversations with HRH Prince William and MPs [Source 9]. Subsequently Odell-Miller led and hosted a high-level debate at the International Consortium for Music Therapy’s public meeting, for over 80 people, hosted by CIMTR. This event changed perceptions of the public on the latest music therapy research and, as a Commissioner from the NHS Cambridge Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) commented, the level of music therapy research is ‘compelling and ground-breaking’.

Seminal to changing patterns of music and music therapy interventions for PWD was the BBC1 documentary Our Dementia Choir, viewed by millions around the UK and beyond [Source 10]. It featured ARU neuroscientific music therapy research as well as ARU-trained music therapists. The CEO of Chiltern Music, a large music therapy provider, noted an increase of 27% in website visits the week after the broadcast . Page views relating to community music therapy groups increased by 300%, while page views relating to community events increased by 116% [Source 2].