Doctor Audun Myskja (MD, PhD) is Advisor to The Norwegian National Resource Center for Arts and Health, established in July 2014. The Center is a collaboration between Nord university, Nord-Trøndelag County Council, Levanger municipality, The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study and Helse Nord-Trøndelag
Writer, author, musician and Ph.D of Medicine, Audun Myskja works in General Practice and Family Medicine, with over thirty years experience researching within the field of integrated medicine.
Audun has been a strong and important voice in the traditional academic setting, seeking to create simple practice-based methods to connect science and the fields of the common human experience, expanding the context of traditional Western medicine.
Audun is especially known for innovative use of musical elements in rehabilitation of dementia and Parkinson patients, and for creating systematic tools for empowerment in persons with chronic illness. His presentation will show how song, dance and music can give therapeutic aid in dementia care and give people, living with dementia, dignity.
The title of Audun’s presentation is “Music-based caregiving: Integrating an arts approach in health care practice”. In his presentation, he will address the neuroscience foundation of using music in dementia care and how song, dance and music can be used as an integrated tool in clinical care. He will also talk about the most effective ways of implementing the arts in healthcare. Audun will also reference , results from a 5 year music-based rhythmic exercise program for people living with Parkinsons.
The concept of “Music-based Caregiving” has been developed through a dozen projects in the health services from 2000 onwards, including 25 institutions and over 1000 residents in all 5 regions of Norway. Main outcomes have been agitation and depression (quantitative), wellbeing, personhood and environment (qualitative), sick leave, extra medication and family satisfaction (implementation data). Audun Myskja’s Ph. D. work, Integrated music in nursing homes – an approach to dementia care, University of Bergen, 2012 gave an evidence base to music-based caregiving, enabling an education programme of health care professionals (n=197, 2012-15). The local results were so convincing that the Norwegian Health Directory inaugurated a nationwide implementation programme, sponsoring a systematized teaching of music-based caregiving. Health care professionals learn an individualized song, dance and music protocol, aided by arts and health specialists, mainly with an arts background.
The teaching programme is presented in collaboration with the National Competence Centre for Dementia and Aging, in basic, professional and academic levels, aided by written, audio and video material adjusted to the teaching level.
A systematic documentation protocol follows local implementation procedures, including the impact of musical skills on the performance, job satisfaction and personal health on participants, mostly musically naïve and with little experience in the arts.
Audun Myskja will also give a workshop to show participants the music-based methods individualized music, care singing, voice training, rhythmic auditory stimulation, therapeutic dance, creative improvisation and sound environment.
The application of the methods will be illustrated by video clips and taught with an emphasis on the «how to» of clinical application integrated in the normal procedures of health care services. Though illustrated by work in dementia, the application of music-based caregiving to other groups, such as Parkinsons, will also be detailed.
