CIMTR's healthy ageing and dementia research theme aims to support the development of strategies, methods, tools and technologies to enhance support and care for older people, people affected by dementia, and their care companions.
In 2021, ARU won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for innovative work in music therapy with a focus on the wellbeing of people with dementia and influencing policy at community and national level.
This includes CIMTR’s contributions to the Music for Dementia Commission in the House of Lords in 2018, and to the introduction of music therapy into the NICE guidelines for dementia in 2019.
Dementia is a collective term for a range of disorders leading to physical changes in the brain resulting in memory loss and other changes to cognitive functions used in daily life. These changes can also result in communication and sensory differences for the person, impacting how they relate with and engage with the world around them.
Music therapy can be one way to support social relationships, personal interests and activities in daily life while living with dementia. It can also be a useful tool for friends, families and communities around the person with dementia to connect with, support and care for the person, and to support wellbeing during changes in their lives that occur from experiencing dementia.
Our research aims to develop strategies, methods, tools and technologies to support people living with dementia and their care companions.
We also work with partners in the community to deliver music therapy services, as in our Together in Sound project, to people living with dementia in the community.
You can read more about our work on these projects below.
The HOMESIDE trial investigated the impact of music and reading interventions for people living with dementia and their caregivers in the community.
Read more about HOMESIDERadioMe aims to develop real-time radio remixing for people with mild to moderate dementia who live alone, incorporating agitation reduction and diary reminders
Read more about RadioMeMELODIC aims to co-design a new intervention in order to investigate how music therapy can reduce distress on NHS inpatient wards for people with dementia.
Read more about MELODICTogether in Sound is a partnership with Saffron Hall, Essex, that offers free interactive music therapy groups for those living with dementia and their companions.
Read more about Together in SoundEmeritus Professor
Clinical Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow
Professor