Design a digital musical activities system according to music therapy process for dementia and their caregivers

• Main Authors: Chieh Yun Liu, 劉玠筠
• Other Authors: K. C. Tseng
• Format: Others
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62532415235919377028

碩士 === 長庚大學 === 工業設計學系 === 102 === With an aging society, an increasing number of individuals suffer from dementia has become a significant concern for families and society. Clinical experience has shown that music can alleviate the symptoms of dementia. Via joining musical activities together, it could increase the interaction between patients, caregivers, and family members. However, musical activities require a music therapist to assist in planning. A variety of equipment must be prepared for each case to meet different preferences and needs as well. Moreover, due to patients, caregivers, and family members’ lack of musical background, it is often difficult to carry out these activities. With the reasons mentioned above, it is merely impossible to extend music therapy from fixed treatment courses to patients’ daily lives. Therefore, based on how caregivers lead dementia patients to carry on musical activities planned by music therapists, this study aims to integrate technical equipment commonly used for music activities; via high technology, capability of large information processing and simple instrument operation interface, users are able to execute a large variety of musical activities simply by following the operation process of this system. The design of this process uses an improved waterfall development model as its framework. To confirm the purpose of such design, document references are reviewed to understand the current issues faced by dementia patient and relevant approaches to music therapy. Subsequently, musical activities system is designed and developed based on the research and analysis of the content of music therapy for dementia patient as well as the results of analyzing users’ demands. After the system is completed, a technology acceptance model would be used to examine whether the operating procedures of the musical activities system are understood and accepted by the users. In addition, the interview records from the experts are analyzed to verify if the system is acceptable to experts. Accordingly, the results are discussed in six sections: (1) Target and occasion of using the system, (2) system multimodality, (3) sensory stimulation, (4) suggestion for the system games, (5) system evaluation recommendations, and (6) system feedback. The results show that the music therapists accept the targets and goals which are set for the musical activities system devised in this study. The music therapists also agree that the system meet the requirements of diversification and personalization emphasized in current music therapy and give the system positive evaluations. More importantly, the music therapists are willing to recommend the system to dementia patients and their caregivers.