Steff Griffiths is the Local Coordinator in Mid Wales for the music and dementia charity Playlist for Life.
The charity was founded in 2013 by writer and broadcaster Sally Magnusson after the death of her mother, Mamie, who had dementia. The charity’s vision is that everyone living with dementia has a unique, personal playlist and everyone who loves or cares for them knows how to use it.
I caught up with Steff on Zoom recently to find out more about this amazing work.
What is your role with Playlist for Life and which area do you cover?
My role as a local coordinator for Playlist is basically to get out and about in the community and tell everybody how helpful music is in the lives of people living with dementia. So before Covid I would go and visit dementia cafes, dementia groups, carers organisations – basically any organisation that deals with people either directly living with dementia or their carers, their families, and people who support them. And I talk to them about the way music affects the brain and the way music brings back memories and then show them how to build personal music playlists.
I cover the whole of Wales north of Cardiff and the Valleys. I've a colleague in Cardiff but otherwise I'm everywhere!
What brought you to work in this field?
I’ve always found it very interesting and I have experience in my family of people living with dementia and had already realised how much music helps. So when I saw this lottery-funded post I thought I've got to do this job. It's a simple tool that really helps people. We've been based in Wales about a year now. The charity started originally in Scotland and it’s spread to London, the Southwest of England and now Wales.
Basically we give organisations and groups step by step help so that they you can choose songs that have memories attached to them and put them into a playlist for people living with dementia to listen to. You can create playlists in a number of ways, for example on YouTube, and then email them to people if they've got a phone or laptop or an iPad. It's free. When a song is played the memory comes back and you can talk with people about when they were children, when they married, when they used to go to gigs, and all the songs that remind them of Christmas, holidays or celebrations from their past.
We have lots of case studies of people living with dementia who are very withdrawn. But then when certain songs with memories attached are played, they get up and sing and dance. They play the piano, they will remember seeing Pink Floyd in concert or perhaps the Rolling Stones. And I think – wow, that's cool. But it's just the power of music that's personal to you which really does bring people back to the present and it helps people connect.
If you're caring for people who can communicate with you it's very easy to build a playlist because you can have a chat about the songs from the past. If they're not able to communicate those memories to you we also provide training called Music Detectives. It's all the tips and the tricks about how to build a playlist for somebody who has difficulty communicating and remembering their special songs. There’s also a Mini Music Detectives for children to help as well so they can work with their grandparents or go with their school into a care home (although not at the moment obviously).
Why is music such a powerful force for people living with dementia?
It's the memory. When you listen to music, you're hearing some of the melody, the words, the tone and the pitch and this connects parts of the brain that don't normally connect together for people living with dementia. It can fire off a lot of the neurons in the brain. You don't have to listen to professional music you can just sing the song. I spend a lot of time singing (I can't sing very well!) on the phone to people. Over the summer, when I was working with the Alzheimer’s Society creating personal playlist for people, Neil Diamond’s bank balance must have grown exponentially because everybody liked Sweet Caroline and it was on a lot of Playlists!
The Playlist for Life website is open to everyone and there are loads of downloadable resources on there. Create the Soundtrack to your Life is a popular one. It's a little booklet and it's where you write the song and the associated memory and then the booklet goes with the person if they go into respite for example. So staff know that the song “Sweet Caroline” has this memory associated with it, then the conversation starts and it builds that trust and bit of rapport. We have case studies on the website but you have to get your tissues ready to watch some of the video stories because it can be quite emotional, even though it’s a happy story.
How can creating a personal playlist impact on the emotional wellbeing of someone living with dementia?
Well, we have an example of a lady who is very withdrawn. But when she plays the piano she’s very engaged with the music and her audience. She's engaging with people which ordinarily she wouldn't do if the music wasn't there. It's not a panacea. It's not going to cure people but it really works with some people and it can help people a lot.
If people living with dementia aren’t able to reminisce in ways like this, what can happen to them?
It's probably a very lonely existence. People can be very withdrawn and anxious, and can't connect with the outside world. They get very upset and they don't know why.
There's a lovely video featuring Harry and Margaret on our website showing how they connect via music. You can see on Margaret’s face - she's got her husband back. They talk about when they used to go dancing and that's when they met. He knows the words to songs from the 1950s yet ordinarily he doesn't remember things. It's that connection which the music helps with.
Lots - because the job is very face-to-face. We go out and talk to organisations and show them all these resources for creating playlists. But of course nothing's face to face now. So we've been holding webinars for people to sign up to and we've been doing music detective training over Zoom.
We've also been working with the Alzheimer’s Society creating playlists for people who can't get out and about as their usual meeting places have been closed. And it's been online for the past nine months. We’re also doing whatever we can to spread the word about the charity and the resources so that hopefully, in six months’ time, when all this hopefully will go away, people will know what the charity can offer them.
One example was when we made a playlist for a lady in her 90s and her son-in-law was telling me “we know exactly what song is playing because even though she's got headphones on she's singing at the top of her voice!”
Which other organisations do you work closely with in Powys, a very rural county?
So far Dementia Matters in Powys and yourselves. It’s early days so far. The community councils are also keen to get involved as well. So if there are any organisations in the area interested in using music to help people living with dementia, please get in touch.
Tell us what a “dementia friendly Powys” looks like to you personally
It's about people having the knowledge of what dementia is and understanding the many different types of dementia. Then knowing how best we can support people living with dementia, and their carers, and their families. So it's all about knowledge. It's about using all of the tools that we've got available to help and to support people. And everyone having their own personal music playlist, of course.
What are the main challenges of the role?
I made the mistake early on when I started the job of sending out 50 emails in one day to all these organisations to say hello. I had about 36 of them come back within a day saying yes, we want to meet you and find out more. So keeping up with demand was the biggest challenge in the early days.
But during the past few months the challenge has actually being the technology side of things. We've got some lovely organisations that I met before lockdown that are not able to use technology very well. So they’re waiting to return to face-to-face before engaging with me again. So, it's tough now getting to the grassroots’ groups.
And also the need to diet from eating all those cakes, when we were meeting up, has been a real challenge!
Tell us about some of the most rewarding work you have done at Playlist for Life so far
It's definitely been creating playlists for people. We have such a laugh! One couple were having a disco in the garden with a little MP3 player of all the personal music we gave them. The gentleman had the story of his life turned into his playlist. It was a fantastic playlist.
Another highlight was running Music Detective training courses with colleges. We trained 60 - 70 of a college’s access students in the Music Detectives’ work – it’s been great to have that opportunity.
When you are not working for Playlist for Life, how do you enjoy spending your time?
I love walking and cycling. I'm an out-and-about person. I love to travel abroad as well. During Covid I have found so many new parks and places to go locally that I never would have thought about before. That’s been great.
If you want to find out more about Playlist for Life you can contact Steff by emailing: steff@playlistforlife.org.uk or ring 07712 273 946.
Working with Care Home residents as performing artists for the past 15 years we have experienced the transformative power that music has on people living with dementia specifically, but also for people in general.
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