Closing ceremony for PolyU School of Nursing’s Standalone Therapeutic Music-with-Movement Programme

The closing ceremony of the funded Standalone Therapeutic Music-with-Movement Programme was held today, which marked the successful adoption of School of Nursing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s (PolyU) gerontechnological innovation in the community for caring older adults with cognitive impairment.

The ceremony was attended by Dr Laura Lo, Associate Vice President (Institutional Advancement) of PolyU together with Ms Jean HO (Chairperson), Ms Rose HO; and Dr Liliane CHAN, the representatives of the funding organisation of the programme, the Ho Cheung Suk Yuen Charitable Foundation. The Foundation had generously donated a sum of HK$ 500,000 for the development of the programme, in addition to the over HK$ 4,460,000 funding support from the Innovation and Technology Commission through the Innovative and Technology Fund for Better Living. 30 representatives (including those staff members who had participated in the programme) from 22 elderly centres and care services for older adults joined the School of Nursing of PolyU in celebration of the outstanding achievement of the programme.

The Standalone Therapeutic Music-with-Movement Programme is significant in transforming the way psychosocial interventions are delivered in elderly care settings. Integrated with augmented reality technology, motion-sensing music instruments, and an intelligent cloud-based platform that enables storage and analysis of data for monitoring of the players’ cognitive and physical condition, the Music-with-Movement intervention, is a fun-filled tablet-based activity that offers cognitive stimulation and social interaction opportunities to older adults with cognitive impairment.

Our preliminary research evidence has showed that the programme is effective in promoting memory functions and their perceived social support of older adults with cognitive impairment. Those with mild cognitive impairment, in addition, presented with enhanced general well-being. Those centre staff members and caregivers who had received our training to deliver the intervention were found improved in knowledge and attitudes towards dementia.

The programme was implemented in 56 local elderly service centres in the past two years. It served more than 1,000 older adults with cognitive impairment, trained 140 centre staff members and caregivers to deliver the intervention. In addition, 150 nursing students from the School of Nursing of PolyU involved in the programme gained hands-on experiences in the community settings. The creativity and uniqueness of the programme have been recognised by the Hong Kong Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Awards in 2022, the Claudia J. Beverly Innovation Award from the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence in 2023, and the Innovation Awards at the Consumer Electronics Show held at the United States this year.

Prof. Janelle YORKE, Chair Professor of Nursing & Head of the School of Nursing of PolyU, expressed gratitude to the funding organisations and collaborative partners and organisations at the ceremony. “We have laid a solid foundation for the Music-with-Movement programme through concerted effort and I look forward to more collaborations with local organisations and partners in the future for developing new innovations to enhance wellness of ageing populations and their caregivers.” She concluded in her welcoming speech at the ceremony.

Dr Daphne CHEUNG, Principal Investigator of the programme and Associate Professor of the School of Nursing of PolyU said, “The effectiveness of the programme is encouraging, and the project has profound implication for improvement in quality of care in local elderly care services through integrating gerontechnology.”