Five Questions With… Kirsty Cartin
Every fortnight we sit down with a guest working in dementia care to bring you an insight into their role and experience of using meaningful music. This week we speak to Kirsty Cartin, a Care Home Manager working at Rashielea Care Home in Erskine near Glasgow.
Listen to Kirsty's personalised playlist featuring Runrig and Queen at the end of the feature.
Hi Kirsty! Thanks for joining us this week. What motivates you in your role as care home manager?
I’ve worked in care homes since qualifying as a nurse in 2002. I feel honoured to be able to support older adults in maintaining relationships with their family, friends & community, and to enable them to maintain their wellbeing through difficult times. I believe this comes from the strong relationships I had with both of my nannas. I love hearing people’s stories and making sure the important chapters in people’s lives are remembered from birth to death.
What made you want to complete Playlist for Life’s Certified training and how has it helped you develop your professional skills?
I had followed the work of Playlist for Life for some time prior to undertaking the certified training with a group of staff. I wanted to lead them in recognising the power of music.
I recognised the profound effect the right tune can have on residents, particularly those living with dementia, who may need help to express themselves.
Additionally, music can be a treasure chest of stories and sharing these stories enhances relationships between staff, residents and their families. Using people’s playlists in care can reduce distress, prevent distress occurring, bring people together when they’re during the ‘I don’t know what to say anymore’ times.
I also recently completed the Queens Nurse Leadership Development Programme and as part of this I set myself a development target – using Namaste Care to help residents living with dementia to feel more visible. Each resident on the Namaste Care pathway had a personalised playlist. Staff noticed residents – who had barely spoken a word previously – singing along to songs and with tears rolling down their eyes during emotive songs whereas before their feelings were not readily shown. One lady summed it up by saying ‘what would we do without music?’.
Earlier this year we worked with children from Rashielea Primary School on an intergenerational project where children used Playlist’s Young Music Detective Workbook to explore music with residents. It has been wonderful to watch the relationships form, see the barriers of age broken down and the compassion both generations show for each other. They ended the school year with an assembly where residents were invited along to dance with the children to music from the 1960s – some even dressed up!
You’re passionate about carers taking time to understand unique and individual needs of people they are caring for. How can the use of meaningful music in care enable this?
Music encompasses a person’s identity. We care much better when we can identify with each other, when we can see what matters to a person.
Some people are not able to tell us about their past, or we may know about someone’s story but they can no longer share these details in words. Meaningful music is a gateway to feelings and emotions and in sharing these carers can find connections with individual residents and their families in things like holiday spots, cultural events, football teams, places and faces.
Music can help people living with dementia to feel safe, provide a comforting distraction from uncomfortable experiences. We can use music proactively to reduce distress but also reactively when people are distressed. Music is accessible to all too via MP3 players, tablets, smartphones, CDs, vinyl, musical instruments or even through good old-fashioned singing. It’s also a resource that doesn’t cost a lot of money.
Can you tell us about a time you have seen the power of music in action for someone living with dementia or in another scenario?
I once supported a lady who could become distressed very quickly. She didn’t like to be in the company of large groups of people but when assisted to quieter areas, she would feel alone and this led to her feeling unwanted and unloved.
In this state, she would cry and loudly proclaim that nobody loved her and even staff reassurance that she was very much loved, could not offer consolation. This lady loved Scottish music, having a very strong Scottish identity. Playing Scottish traditional tunes – a favourite being Donald Where’s Yer Troosers – would instantly bring forth smiles and staff would continue singing along with her, forging that much needed connection.
The lady would also become distressed during personal care, it was threatening to her but staff would play her beloved pipe music which was a welcome and comforting distraction and this would continue as she came to breakfast. We’d know she was coming by the sound of the pipes coming down the corridor!
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Kirsty's personal playlist
Loch Lomond by Runrig
This song speaks of my national pride but around Loch Lomond is also one of my favourite places to hike.
Livin’ On A Prayer by Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi was the first concert I ever attended with my sister and my mum, These Days tour at Ibrox in 1996.
Crazy for You by Let Loose
This was a big hit one summer on our yearly pilgrimage to Blackpool. My nanna would always take us down during the Paisley fair and we stayed in some interesting B&Bs!
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
My dad played Queen in the car all the time when I was young. I used to be mortified as he’d play it so loud with the windows down – now I love Queen!
Back in the Saddle by Matraca Berg
My flatmates and I would play this song before going out whilst at university. We thought it such a fun song – they were good times.
