Background: A major concern in dementia care is communication problems, and thus problems in interaction with caregivers. A result of that might be that the person with dementia (PWD) express resistance of aggressiveness. Different kind of music activities, especially the method Caregivers Singing (CS) - when caregivers sing for or together with persons with dementia during caring, has shown to reduce these expressions and increase communication and cooperation.
Methods and aim: 30 professional caregivers at three nursing homes for persons with dementia participated in an education program with music and CS as a tool to person centered care. They participated in group discussions about their experiences of using CS as a method in their work. The discussions were recorded and analyzed with quali-tative content analysis aiming to explore their experiences and prefer-ences, as well as when it was preferable to use music and CS in their work with PWDs, and also what the outcomes were.
Results: The analysis resulted in two themes; “To facilitate care-giving situations” which included CS at the most, and the caregivers described singing songs favorable for the PWD to calm upset PWDs down and increase cooperation. The other theme; “To increase togeth-erness”, included mostly background music that were preferred by the PWD. This opened up for memories, and social activities such as dancing.
Conclusions: To educate caregivers in a structured way on how to use music and CS in their everyday work can be a way to reach person centered care for PWDs, and to facilitate problematic care situ-ations, as well as increase socialization and communication between PWDs and their caregivers.