In this article we are going to get right to the details of how you can use Vera to better your care and increase the quality of life of those in your care.

These findings are based on our team’s learnings working with professional caregivers, music therapists, hospitals and worldwide leaders in the dementia care space.

In particular, this will include how to set up a Vera profile, how Vera’s music works, how best to integrate Vera into the care and what improvements you should expect to see in both yourself and the listener over time.

To simplify how we talk about the different facets of Vera and who uses it, refer to this guide below:

Caregiver = the person using Vera

Listener = person living with dementia

Account = a caregiver’s login and administrative function within Vera

Profile = a listener’s unique music taste

ADLs = Activities of Daily Living

Vera is a tool for dementia caregivers that enables them to administer personalized music for the person in their care, usually a loved one.

The primary feature of Vera are its three music stations - Relax, Reminisce and Energize. All of Vera’s music is sorted into each of these three categories so that a caregiver can simply choose a station that fits the mood of the listener or the activity of care they are doing, press play and immediately see the effects.

Vera takes the guesswork out of choosing what music to play. Evidence shows that all humans’ musical taste is formed between the ages of 14 and 35. We attach key memories of our early life to the songs that accompany us throughout this period, and these are the exact memories that Vera surfaces to bring positive stimulation to the brain and improve the quality of life of the listener.

The music stations are each 20 songs long (about an hour) and are best listened to from the top without shuffling. We use our team’s musical backgrounds and DJing expertise to actually structure each station to have a consistent flow between tracks, grouping the different styles of music together for an intuitive listening experience.

AI algorithms sit behind the Vera infrastructure, which we call the ‘recommender’. Speaking plainly, the recommender takes the information provided during a profile’s creation - a listener’s birth year, where they grew up, and some very basic information about their music taste - and uses that information to suggest songs that it thinks the listener would have listened to or loved during their early years but have now forgotten.

Vera looks at the similar traits between favourited artists and genres in a listener profile to determine what new music will be recommended, so giving Vera feedback is incredibly important. The AI looks at things like key, timbre, pitch and rhythm, or particular elements of a song (e.g. ‘lead male singer’, ‘guitar solo’, or ‘calming track’), to determine what music to play next.

VeraPro is our tool used by care professionals and music therapists to deliver the benefits of Vera to many listeners at once. Its music functions identically to Vera, however it features dashboards and features outside of the base music player so that the caregiver can use music during the ADLs to enhance their delivery of care. Going forward, this article will refer to both Vera and VeraPro when it uses the word ‘Vera’.

Vera’s music is tailored to play the music from the past of listeners living with dementia aged 60+.

Listeners that are younger than this age or who do not have dementia can still listen to the music and feel the benefits of music wellness, however they are more likely to find that they do not connect with the music selections as often.

Vera is purpose-built for the caregiver of a listener to be the primary user of the account. While some listeners with earlier-stage dementia could potentially operate Vera independently, it is not the recommended use case.

To start off with, we need to learn a few details about the listener so that we can make sure that Vera is playing the right music for their unique background and life!

First, Vera asks for the person’s name, gender, year of birth (not the full date) and their level of cognitive decline (optional). These first few questions are so we can get to know the person better.

Next, Vera will ask for some very broad geographical information about the start of that person’s life. What is their country of birth? What is their first/native language? What was their main country of residence between the ages of 14-35?

When we pair these two sets of information together, it gives us a great start to base our recommendations on, based on the era this person grew up in and the different cultural music they would have been exposed to.
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Next we will ask what are the listener’s favourite genres of music and for a few of their favourite artists.

Just one genre is fine, and if you are unsure of what it might be we recommend choosing Pop. Remember that Pop means popular music during their youth, which doesn’t necessarily include famous Pop artists that we associate the word with today!

When selecting their favourite artists, try to list as many as you can think of, but don’t stress if you forget any as you can always add more favourite artists later. There is a search bar for you to find artists with, and Vera will also suggest a few artists we think could be the right fit based on the information already provided.

If you’re drawing blank, some of the most popular artists we have seen include Elvis Presley, ABBA, Elton John, Andre Rieu, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash and The Bee Gees. Do those stir any other memories of songs or artists they love?

Once you are finished with this step press Done, and you’re all set up and ready to go! Vera does the work behind the scenes to collate everything we know about this person and compare it with things like radio chart data during their youth so that we can form a picture of what music this listener would have listened to throughout their life.

Using Vera is designed to be as easy as possible at its core - you can simply log in and press play on one of the three music stations to get started. This presents a very low-touch way of integrating music into care throughout the day.

However, there are many tips and tricks we will talk about over the rest of this article that you can use to enhance your Vera experience as you get started.

To start with, Vera has two primary use cases, which music therapists call ‘active listening’ and ‘passive listening’.

Passive listening is when we put on music in the background while we are doing another activity. Think of this as the same type of listening as when you’d put music on during a dinner party, when you’re doing some deep work in the office or to hype yourself up during exercise.

The Relax and Energize music stations are ideal for passive listening, and you can pick which mood suits the activity you are doing. These two stations are using Vera’s AI to focus on the discovery of new songs that the listener might love. While using these stations, it is very important to give Vera feedback on which songs elicited a positive response, as favouriting the right songs will drastically improve the recommendations and effectiveness of music listening overall.

Caregiver have found the most success with these stations when choosing a particular part of the ADLs to use Vera with every day. Which activity you should choose is entirely up to you and the extent of the reaction from the listener to the music, so play around with this until you find a routine that works for you.

The activities that we have found are successfully improved with music most often are:

Active listening is when we play music and give it our attention. This is the listening style that has the most vivid effect on a listener - when the music captures their attention the memories they attach to the songs Vera plays will come to the surface.

Active listening is best done using the ‘Reminisce’ music station in Vera, which collates all of the ‘hearted’ songs and artists across the other two stations into a collection of favourites.

This station and the powerful brain stimulation that it brings is particularly useful before and during family visits, as well as on those days when the listener is in a particularly bad mood.

The key to success when integrating Vera into your care routine is to use it for longer sessions during the easier parts of the day, and for short sessions during the more stressful parts of the day. Research has shown that as little as 15 minutes of music for 3-5 days per week can have a profound impact on the listener’s quality of life. That’s barely four songs!

When getting started, try to find the activities during the day that you can most easily integrate music into, without it detracting from the original activity. This will ensure you use Vera throughout the week consistently, forming the habit and engaging the brain of the person in your care for extended periods of time.

Then, once you’ve favourited a few songs and are comfortable using Vera, you can begin to use Vera during behavioural management.

If a listener has a negative experience or reaction to the music, the best thing that you can do is stop the music as soon as possible and calm the listener. Stay with the listener for a little while and monitor their mood - it’s important to not leave them on their own if they have just remembered a negative memory or experience.

When they are calm, make sure to press the ‘Remove’ button on that song in Vera to ensure that you will never hear it again within any of the music stations.

The music that Vera recommends is through an exclusive music licence with Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest record label.

Vera features over 1 million unique tracks that you can listen to. Vera features 42 core languages (those with a significant depth of choice) but has catalogue for 100 languages that you can add to your profile.

UMG’s catalogue consists of over half of the world’s recorded music, but more importantly, it has a particular focus on music released before 1970 and the genres that were popular during this time, such as Jazz, Classical, Country and Blues.

If you search for an artist in Vera and cannot find them, it is likely that UMG has not licenced the catalogue for that artist’s music. Do bear in mind that licencing between music labels changes constantly, so music selection is constantly subject to change.
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This question is our most frequently asked question by a country mile. The answer is simply that it depends on the listener’s preference and mood, as well as what activity you’re doing.

We generally recommend speakers, as they are less hands-on, can move with you as the caregiver, and allow you to share musical moments with the listener.

There are many reliable drop-proof and waterproof speakers on the market that can really enhance the music experience and keep it flexible when fitting into your pre-established routines. We personally use these speakers when we roll out Vera to aged care sites.

Headphones can cause discomfort to listeners with dementia, however if that isn’t a problem then they are ideal for listeners with hearing impairment or who would benefit from being totally immersed in the music.

Even without the context of dementia care, music can have a wonderful impact on your life.

We play sad songs to help us get through difficult times. We play happy, upbeat music at parties or on holidays. We play high-energy songs to help us get up in the morning or exercise. We play low-energy songs to relax or set the mood at dinner. We all integrate music wellness into our lives daily without even realizing it!

We cannot speak to the benefits of integrating music into the life of someone living with dementia enough. Thankfully, the benefits of music in dementia care have been researched and documented thoroughly at an increasing rate.

In initial studies, we found that Vera could increase the quality of life for a listener by an average of 17% in just the first two weeks of consistent use.

The most common reactions are the most pure - smiling, tapping of the feet, clapping of the hands or even dancing. Music brings joy to the most simple of activities. A wonderful example of this is our work at the Barossa Village in Adelaide.

Where the real magic lies is in the eyes of the listener. When they recognise a song that they love, it’s like the fog clears all of a sudden and they’re suddenly present, engaged and actively thinking.

A wonderful visual demonstration of this is this clip titled “Henry’s Story”, which is a featurette of the documentary ‘Alive Inside’. An incredible watch if you’re interested in knowing more about the science behind music for the mind.
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Something that sets Vera apart from other dementia care tools and methods is the benefit that Vera has on the caregiver.

By integrating Vera’s music following the steps above, Vera can help a caregiver navigate through both those happy days where everything works a charm and those stressful days where it feels like everything is going wrong.

Through increasing the positivity of care interactions within the daily routine, Vera can save you time. If Vera can make washing the person in your care, or mealtimes, or winding down in the evenings becomes just that little bit easier, then it is improving your quality of life.

The most impactful and memorable moments Vera can bring are those moments of reconnection. We find that the music memories that a listener recalls (from when they were aged 14-35) are often memories that their primary caregiver had not heard of before! This can lead to wonderful memories being shared and created for the caregiver that can last a lifetime.

If you’d like to give Vera a try and see if it can integrate into your care routine, we offer 14 days free for all customers, to make sure it is the right fit for you. You can create an account by downloading Vera on the App Store or Google Play Store, or if you have any questions or want to continue the conversation please don’t hesitate to reach out to our wonderful team at hello@veramusic.com.

Take care 💜