Music Therapy in Dementia Care

Gudrun Aldridge is a music therapist, university lecturer and supervisor in Germany. She studied music therapy in London and carried out her doctoral research at Aalborg University in Denmark. Her main areas of interest are psychosomatic medicine, music therapy with breast cancer and dementia patients, and the links between music sciences, aesthetics and therapy. She has previously contributed to several music therapy books, including Case Study Designs in Music Therapy and Music Therapy in Palliative Care, also published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

This is an interesting book that spans a range of areas not initially evident from the title. Specialised and non-specialised audiences alike can usefully utilise this book. Two chapters provide detail by way of notation to consider the interesting role of music therapy as a mode of assessment and as a means of engaging creatively with the person with dementia. Consideration of more focused outcomes such as reminiscing and managing agitation are explored as is the whole role of music in addressing post traumatic stress. At the other end of the continuum, the place of singing and the appropriateness of this mode of engagement for people with dementia are clearly made.

• 1. Overture: It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it, David Aldridge. 2. An overview of the music therapy literature relating to the elderly, Melissa Brotons, USA. 3. Working with words: People with dementia and the significance of narratives, Trisha Kotai-Ewers, Australia. 4. The importance of singing with elderly patients, Alicia Clair, USA. 5. The problem of agitation in the elderly and the potential benefit of music therapy, Annemiek Vink, Netherlands. 6. A survey of music therapy practice with the elderly in the Netherlands, Annemiek Vink, Netherlands. 7. Improvisation as an assessment of potential in early Alzheimer's disease, Gudrun Aldridge, Germany. 8. Creative music therapy: A last resort? Fraser Simpson, England. 9. Remembering and forgiving, Susan Weber, Germany. 10. Working with images and recollection with elderly patients, Connie Tomaino, USA. 11. We'll survive: An experiential view of dance movement therapy for people with dementia, Marion Violets. References. Index.