Try This Fun Caregiving Tip for Your Loved One

If you are caring for someone who has a form of dementia, here's one way you help them improve their well-being.


Tune into happiness - With many positive health benefits, music may be the best tool a caregiver can use. “Music has the ability to improve social interactions, enhance mood, increase communication in individuals with dementia or Alzheimer's as well as reduce anxiety and stress,” says Elisabeth Knight, MSSW with Caring Excellence. “Music also has the ability to affect physical health by improving nighttime sleep, reducing pain, increasing mobility and coordination, or lessening the need for medication.”

Here are a few more benefits of music:

• Decreases agitation
• Assists with transitions from activities
• Can be used to redirect from a potentially unsafe activity
• Triggers happy memories
• Prompts conversation

This article and other tips for caregivers appears in the summer issue of Today's Transitions.