Music Attuned Technology for Care via eHealth (MATCH) in Professional Care

Care staff in professional aged care settings working with residents/patients living with dementia will receive MATCH Training Program which will be embedded in a secure online platform. The MATCH Training was developed to support caregivers of people living with dementia to use music intentionally to support care. There are five core training modules plus an introductory module, lasting 30 minutes, including: Module 1: Introduction to music in dementia care Module 2: Mood regulation Module 3: Personal care Module 4: Relaxation Module 5: Engaging and connecting Module 6 (Introductory module): How to use the MATCH App Each training module contains an overview of how music can be used to support relevant activities and interactions to the module focus, and includes an interactive component and demonstrations to support staff to develop their skills in using MATCH Strategies to support people living with dementia. Additionally, a sixth module guides caregivers in use of the MATCH App. For this project, the MATCH Music Training Program will be embedded in a secure online platform. All staff at the participating care facilities will be provided a unique private link, inviting them to complete the MATCH Training. Training will occur during the pre-trial period (3-4 weeks before the intervention) to allow staff time to complete. This provides flexibility for staff to complete the 30-minute training videos, in paid time allocated by their employer. After completing the training, care staff will engage the resident/patient in activities as taught in the MATCH Modules when they observe that a resident/patient in their care could benefit from a MATCH Strategy learned in the MATCH Training. Participants will engage in the intervention for 8 weeks. The length of the music experience is dependent on the resident/patient’s need as determined by the care staff. Participating care staff will be asked to use MATCH Strategies to support all personal care interactions with enrolled residents/patients. All activities (use) will be automatically recorded in the MATCH App logs. Using the MATCH App, care staff will be directed to select the type of MATCH Strategies as ‘Listen’ or ‘Sing’. Music listening will be via MATCH Music Recommender System (aligned with each resident/patient’s individual profile and preference) and MATCH sample playlists. The duration of music playlist use will be recorded automatically in the App. Recorded music can be played with the resident/patient from the MATCH App via device speakers, external Bluetooth speakers, or headphones per resident/patient preference and in accordance with the professional care setting’s policies and resources for music use. Singing-based strategies will be recorded in the App via the ‘Sing’ button. To aid implementation of MATCH, the research team will work collaboratively with the aged care organisation to develop their whole team implementation/change plan for utilising the MATCH strategies in care. Each professional care setting will have a unique plan suited to their workplace and our protocol for providing support is deliberately flexible to work with existing practices and minimise burden. Further, care staff will be asked to use MATCH Strategies as needed in accordance with the person-centred and directed approach. Each participating resident/patient will have a user profile and personalised music library made up of recommendations based on their music preferences (e.g. preferred genres, artists, songs) and demographics (e.g., year and country of birth, preferred language/s spoken, cultural background, religion). When provided, these music preferences will be used. The MATCH Music Recommender System then creates playlists from this personalised library for use in particular situations and for specific purposes (aligning with the MATCH Training Modules). Suggested music may also be sequenced based on its purpose. For example, for mood regulation (agitation reduction), recommended playlists are sequenced from high to low arousal (informed by music metadata, including tempo, energy and valence). For the sensor sub-study, participating care staff will be asked to use MATCH Strategies as applicable in response to sensor alerts that appear to accurately predict agitation for MATCHplus sub-study participants. MATCHplus integrates the MATCH App with a bespoke agitation detection system via wearable sensors and an AI-based music recommender system). Both the agitation predictor/detection and music recommender systems have been developed by the MATCH Research team. An 8-week pre-intervention period will allow time for tech set up and testing, patient/resident sensor calibration, and staff training and baseline assessments. Within the 8-week trial period 2 small subsets of participants will participate in a 4-week trial of MATCHplus (2 weeks to calibrate the sensors to detect agitation in individual participants and 2 weeks to determine staff response and impact of the music recommender). The research team will provide all the sensor devices (Google Pixel Watch 2). The agitation prediction system will detect sustained deviations from the baseline that precede agitation and then provide advanced warnings approximately 5 to 15 minutes before onset to enable an early intervention. The length of music experience is dependent on the resident/patient's need as determined by the care staff. Each resident/patient participant's sensor device will be labelled and linked to the MATCH app to ensure that if an agitation event is detected that the staff member can approach and administer the MATCH strategy to the correct participant each time. The care staff will be responsible for assisting the resident/patient to wear it throughout the day (24 hours), including removing it and putting it back on for charging and showering. All usage data will be recorded through the sensor analytics and the MATCH App data logs.