Brain Health Academy Video Production

Person interviewed

Gregory A. Jicha, MD, PhD

Director, UK Telemedicine Cognitive Clinic

UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging

Date and length of interview

Monday, February 21st, 2022

Approximately 23 minutes

Interview questions

• Could you please share about what kinds of needs your clients have and how you think that music could support these needs?

• What have been the barriers that you have encountered to meeting these needs?

• Could you tell me more about the range of functioning and/or cognitive decline that your target audience is experiencing?

•  I will be creating 3 activities and will need feedback after each one. Since I likely will not be able to target all of the goals with these activities, which do you think would be the most important for me to focus on with these activities?

Blog

The focus of my service-learning project is to create music-based activities for a video series being produced by the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. 

When I went into the interview with Dr. Jicha, a neurologist at UK who works predominately with adults who have dementia, I was not entirely sure what to expect. From my previous participation in filming videos for the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, I knew a bit about the project that I will be continuing to help with as a part of my service-learning project, but I was excited to get the opportunity to ask questions and get another perspective about the needs of the community that Dr. Jicha serves. 

During my interview, I knew that I only had a few short minutes to be able to get more information about the project in order to gather information about how I could play a small part in helping to meet the needs of the community, so I tried to focus only on the most pertinent questions. The biggest thing that I wanted to understand was the primary needs of the folks the videos are being designed for. After asking the primary needs of the clients, some of what was shared with me included the following:

• Providing respite for client’s care partners

• Cognitive stimulation

• Physical exercise

• Social connection

• Giving people a way to provide engagement for their loved ones

• Slowing disease progression and ameliorating dementia symptoms

Another component of the needs that Dr. Jicha highlighted was the need for distance services. Since many of the clients of the Sanders-Brown Center are not located near Lexington or another major metropolitan area, they are limited in the types of services that are available for caring for people with dementia. One of the primary goals of the Brain Health Academy program is to provide high-quality stimulating content that can be distributed to those with dementia and their care partners in Kentucky, throughout the country, and even throughout the world.  The portability aspect of providing video recordings was emphasized, as these videos are being designed to be able to be used by anyone and to be shown anywhere. 

During this portion of the interview, I also wanted to find out why the folks at the Sanders-Brown Center believed that music in particular would be a way to address these needs. Dr. Jicha spoke highly of the benefits of music for folks with dementia. In particular, he discussed how music is an enjoyable activity, how it stimulates all areas of the brain, and its ability to encourage engagement in the physical and social domains. He also mentioned wanting a song to be played at the beginning of each video to serve as a cue to indicate familiarity to the people watching the video. Overall, it was clear to me that music would be a valued and supported part of this project and that the benefits of music were understood. 

I asked about some of the barriers that have been present while developing and carrying out this project, and the primary one mentioned was lack of funding. Since getting funding for a project such as this can be difficult, the folks at the Sanders-Brown Center have recruited participants from within the UK community to volunteer their time and expertise for the project. The activities filmed for the Brain Health Academy videos will be primarily carried out by volunteer students, faculty and staff who are affiliated with UK. Another component of barriers from another perspective are the barriers that this project is seeking to address. These are also financial in nature. Since most older adults with dementia are no longer able to work, they often face challenges with money. Their care partners may work tirelessly to support themselves and their loved ones but still may struggle with providing adequate care. One of the important parts of the Brain Health Academy program is that it will be provided to the community with absolutely no cost associated. 

Since I will only be designing three activities for this project, I wanted to find out what were the primary goals that I should think about addressing. Part of the project that I still need to gain some more clarity on is that some of the videos will be designed for those with mild cognitive decline while others will be designed for those with more moderate to severe cognitive decline. It seems that I will be providing activities for both of these groups, but moving forward I will reach out to see what the expectation is there. When asking what I should try to focus on in my activities, Dr. Jicha shared the importance of using music that will be familiar to people aged 75 to 80, adding activities that could be completed with a companion, and thinking of how to add an aspect of challenge to the activities. The tangible outcomes of these needs being met may include the videos that are produced and distributed, plans for activities that I will create, and the feedback that I will receive from the people creating and editing the videos. Some of the ideas that I have for creating activities that address the needs of physical, cognitive, and social engagement in the form of videos include:

• Movement-based songs where moves will need to be sequenced

• Singing a song with words that repeat and asking the participants to clap their hands on a certain word

• Singing familiar songs and asking trivia questions about the genre, artist, or subject matter

• Providing familiar music where certain words are omitted leaving room for the viewer to fill them in

• Asking reminiscence questions themed around familiar songs