MELODIC: Music therapy Embedded in the Life Of Dementia Inpatient Care News - view all

We are pleased to share our latest publication for MELODIC in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. In this study, we spoke to people with dementia, their families, and staff on mental health dementia wards about their experiences of distress, and the use of music or music therapy to relieve this. Our findings helped to shape the co-design of the MELODIC music therapy intervention for these wards.

ARU's Naomi Thompson has contributed an article about MELODIC to the May 2025 issue of Care Talk magazine, discussing the study's findings so far.

Read our latest newsletter for the latest updates on the project.

Members of the MELODIC team shared the results of our research at an event at Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge, last week. We highlighted the power of co-design and the use of music therapy on dementia wards, as well as our plans to work with partners to implement personalised music therapy to help manage distress.

Read our latest newsletter to find out how the project is progressing so far.

Our latest MELODIC paper, in the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, outlines the protocol for our intervention development study for music therapy on NHS inpatient dementia wards in five phases.

We are thrilled to share our latest publication for MELODIC in Nature Mental Health. This realist review supports MELODIC’s aim to uncover the mechanisms through which music therapy supports people with advanced dementia, presenting a programme theory for how music therapy may be effectively tailored to reduce distress and enhance wellbeing in hospital and care settings.

We are thrilled to share our latest publication for MELODIC in BMC Geriatrics. This systematic review looked at all psychosocial (nondrug) interventions on inpatient mental health dementia wards. We found that interventions may be helpful in reducing distress, but there is a small amount of research and more is needed to help us work out what interventions are most beneficial and how they should be delivered. The findings are informing our MELODIC programme theory and intervention development.

Naomi Thompson (below, centre) attended the Alzheimer’s Disease International Conference 2024 in Krakow from 23 -26 April. It was great to share some of the work we are doing with music therapy in inpatient mental health dementia wards, hear about exciting research development around the world, make new connections, and explore the beautiful city.

The MELODIC project team had a fun and fruitful co-design workshop on Friday 16 February, as part of work package 2. They looked at findings so far, mapped out the key components and style for the protocol for music therapy on dementia inpatient wards, and thought about the next stages of the project.

The MELODIC project team held their first co-design day on Friday 22 September 2023. They would like to thank everyone who joined them in-person or online – they are very much looking forward to co-creating with you over the coming 18 months! If you have lived experience of dementia/inpatient mental health dementia wards, there's still time to join us.  

The MELODIC project was officially launched with an in-person team day at ARU's Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research on 4 September 2023.