Music can have a different effect on everyone.
For Ron Weiler, it lifted his spirits as he sat and listened to a live concert with two musicians at a long-term care home in Waterloo, Ont., earlier this month.
“It was an inspiration for me,” he said. “I love listening to music.”
Music can take a person back to a special memory or it can make people want to get up and dance.
But a question researchers have is: Can it heal?
To find out the answer, they have been hosting live, intimate concerts at long-term care and retirement homes in Waterloo region.
The concerts are part of a six-part pilot project by the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging.
Research lead Kate Dupois says they want to learn more about the healing effect music can have, especially on the well-being of staff.
“We truly believe that having these musical opportunities can help to boost the morale and the mood of our staff,” Dupois said.
“And hopefully in the long run, the goal of this program is to encourage more homes across the province, across the country, to offer these types of opportunities to bring more creativity, music, arts into the homes to really harness the powerful benefits that these can provide for everyone.”
The project is being done in partnership with an organization called Concerts in Care Ontario, which is focused on enriching the lives of seniors living in care homes with live music.
Debra Chandler, executive director of the organization, said they’ve found playing recordings doesn’t have the same impact on the listeners’ well-being.
“The quality of the music matters. If it’s played professionally at a really high skill level with commitment and our musicians mainly self select because they are comfortable in this milieu, then it makes a difference no matter what kind of music it is,” Chandler said.
The organization connected with former members of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony to ensure the music being played is at a professional level.
Dupuis is hoping their project will encourage more care homes to harness the healing effects of live music, especially as health-care workers continue to grapple with staff shortages and burnout.
“The really beautiful thing about music is that if a staff member is assisting a resident in a different room, they’re still able to do that passive participation. They can still hear the beautiful music wafting down the hallway,” she said.
“We know how powerful music can be for our health and well-being. It brings people back to their memories, it helps connect them and it’s a really easy way for us to brighten the days of so many people working and living in long term care.”
Music by former K-W Symphony musicians
Cello player Cathy Anderson and clarinet player Barbara Hankins played together at one of the mini concerts.
Anderson said she gets as much as she gives through music.
“You can see their reactions and you can hear the silence when they’re really paying attention,” she said. “You can hear the rustling when maybe they get a little bit excited and it feels really good to come in and and do this.”
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Hankins said she’s seen how music can heal people around her — both in her professional and personal life.
“It’s really important for them [seniors] whether we see it directly or not. The fact that they are there and really listening, it might not come out until a few days later how much they enjoyed that,” she said.
“We don’t know exactly what’s going on sometimes in their heads, but we can hope that we’re reaching them somehow that we can just give in hopes that it’s what will be good for them, as well as good for us.”
Weiler appreciates the live music and said he hopes to see more live concerts at the long-term care home he lives in.
“It makes me feel good. It uplifts me,” he said. “It makes me feel emotional … I want to sing along with them.”
