Group Therapeutic Songwriting and Dementia: Exploring the Perspectives of Participants Through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Abstract

This pilot study explored how four people living with mild to moderate dementia described their experiences of a community-based group therapeutic songwriting (TSW) program. Sessions took place at a dementia care day center. Support staff, who were co-participants in the songwriting group, also reported their observations. Specific focus was given to what participants described as meaningful about the process, and how they experienced writing songs with others. Data were collected through seven semi-structured interviews (four with people with dementia and three with support staff) and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings were developed idiographically as super-o..