Hallmark Luxury Care Homes, which operates across the UK, has appointed music and dementia charity Playlist for Life to provide training across its 22 care homes on the strategic use of music for its residents living with dementia.
Playlist for Life advocates for the use of personally meaningful music for people living with dementia and works across the health and social care sector, in the community and with policy makers to reach its goal of providing everyone living with dementia a personally meaningful playlist of songs.
The training for care homes is based on over two decades of scientific research, showing that listening to a personal playlist can improve the lives of those living with dementia. A playlist of personally meaningful music can reduce anxiety and distress, improve connection, communication and enhance quality of life for not just the person with dementia – but for those who love and care for them too. Playlists have also been shown to reduce medication in some cases.
Playlist for Life has delivered training to healthcare and social care professionals since 2015, training over 10,000 people across care homes and NHS units. Training is tailored to each care setting, ensuring that personalised playlists are embedded into care and used as an integral part of a resident’s personalised care plan.
So far, three care homes in the Hallmark group – Anisha Grange in Essex, and Tŷ Enfys and Shire Hall in Cardiff – have achieved Playlist for Life certified status. Certified status is awarded to homes that have successfully completed Playlist for Life’s certified training and provided evidence on how they have embedded playlists into care.
Following this success, Hallmark Luxury Care Homes has now invested in Playlist for Life’s ‘Train the Trainer’ programme which upskills team members across the business to become Playlist for Life licensed trainers. This means team members who have completed this course can continue to roll out Playlist for Life training to all care homes in the group.
Tracey Carter, Head of Dementia Care and Wellbeing at Hallmark Luxury Care Homes, spoke of the positive impact playlists have had for residents, family members and team:
“We’ve seen significant benefits in the implementation of Playlist for Life in our homes and are now embarking on rolling this out across all our homes to help improve the wellbeing of our residents. “We saw significant improvements in both physical and psychological wellbeing for our residents, with families also telling us they had seen positive change in their loved one, and that it had helped to develop a new dimension to their ability to connect and stay connected with them too. “Our team reported positive change in many areas, including a reduction of stress and distress, weight gain and stabilisation of healthy weight and a reduction in falls too.”
Michael Timmons, Executive Director at Playlist for Life, said:
“Team members at Hallmark have shown incredible commitment to improving lives of their residents and team through investing time and energy into rolling out Playlist for Life. The teams at Hallmark Luxury Care Homes are truly setting the gold standard in how to embed playlists into care. Playlists might seem like a simple idea, but used in the correct way, with dedication from the whole team, they can be life changing.”
CEO of Hallmark Luxury Care Homes, Aneurin Brown, said:
“Tailored playlists can spark memories, lower stress, and offer comfort to those living with dementia. Our team’s dedication to this approach reflects a deep understanding of its benefits and we’re dedicated to the continuation of supporting residents to thrive, no matter where they are on their journey with dementia.”
