Changemakers

As Director of Programs and Rehabilitation at Kindera Living, Sandy Croley is helping teams rethink what person-centred care can look like in long-term care homes. 

A true changemaker, she brings vision, curiosity, and a drive for innovation along with a remarkable ability to teach, model, and share her knowledge with others. Her strong relational skills build trust and inspire the teams she leads to embrace new ideas and initiatives.

Empathy as the Foundation of Care

Perhaps what is most remarkable about Sandy is her deep empathy. She has a commitment to understanding the people in her care, ensuring their dignity, safety and sense of belonging.

Sandy believes empathy is a skill that can and should be taught. She has unwavering confidence that the team members at Kindera can develop these abilities and integrate them into their daily practice. 

At Kindera, Croley leads empathy training at all levels, from onboarding Executive Directors to modelling and teaching person-centred approaches for recreation team members and PSWs. She encourages team members to step into the experience of being a resident in their homes, to imagine relying on others for care and to envision the quality of care every resident deserves.

Introducing music care into Kindera homes became a major culture-changing movement. 

When working with residents living with staged dementia, teams were often grappling with what person-centred care looked like in practice. Team members were doing their best to meet individual needs, but this sometimes resulted in chaos or overstimulation, with multiple iPads and televisions competing for attention.

“We were using our music therapists as entertainers, and residents and team members were passively sitting by while programs and concerts were happening,” Sandy reflects. 

“We just had to do better.”

Sandy knew the power music could bring to a home, but teams needed structure, knowledge, and practical skills to use music intentionally to improve care outcomes. She brought the MUSIC CARE CERTIFY program to Kindera homes as a framework for integrating music meaningfully into care.

Teamwork, Sandy believes, is essential to the success of any organization. The team-based approach of MUSIC CARE CERTIFY helped dissolve the culture of siloing that can exist in long-term care.

“There is no ‘us and them’ mentality in our homes,” she explains. “We are an ecosystem. We saw that clearly during COVID. If the dietary teams were sick, we washed dishes. If laundry needed help, we sorted socks.”

MUSIC CARE CERTIFY aligned naturally with Kindera’s vision, mission, and values. 

“The Butterfly training we were receiving started our homes on their journey toward excelling in person-centred care,” Sandy says. “MUSIC CARE CERTIFY took us to the next level.”

Building a Culture of Music in Care 

Under Sandy’s leadership, eleven Kindera homes are participating in the MUSIC CARE CERTIFY program. “Everyone is empowered to use music in care,” she explains. 

One early sign of the program’s impact came during evening routines. A Kindera home had been struggling with an increase in resident falls after dinner. 

The team experimented with a simple change: introducing intentional environmental supports tailored to residents’ needs during this transition. In butterfly communities, this included music through a radio or Alexa, gentle visual projections such as northern lights or sailing scenes, calming scents, and tactile items like cozy blankets or twiddle muffs.

The result was striking. Falls decreased noticeably.  

While there have always been PSWs who hum while working or share a song with a resident, the program helped team members understand the broader potential of music to support care tasks, from personal care routines to uplifting residents’ moods.

Clinical teams have essentially been “given permission” to use music intentionally in their work. Dancing with a resident, engaging in a music-related conversation, singing together, or contributing to programming is not seen as stepping outside their role. It is recognized as enhancing the care experience.

Sandy has been inspired by the outcomes of Kindera’s Music Care Action Research Projects.

“They were all so different and taught us so much,” she says. “We’ve learned from each other, like how music impacts sleep, mealtimes, and even palliative care".

Residents have also been given the opportunity to choose the final song played during their Honour Walk, providing musical autonomy at the end of life. 

Ongoing learning is an important part of Sandy’s professional and personal life. After completing the four-day Neurological Music Therapy® Training , she brought the learning back to Kindera, delivering a full-day in-service for Program Managers and Restorative Team members.

“I was fascinated by how music could support stroke rehabilitation,” Sandy says. “Something as simple as using bells in cross-lateral exercises to address one-sided neglect and stimulate the weaker side, it was incredible. These interventions are engaging, fun, and stimulating for the brain.”

She is quick to clarify, “We’re not trying to do neurologic music therapy on our own. But we are learning from the techniques and exploring how they can support our rehabilitation departments.”

Sandy’s music care learning continues to evolve. She is a Certified Drum Circle Facilitator and is currently studying the didgeridoo. 

At Room 217, we have witnessed her remarkable ability to lead teams through experiential learning, from powerful “drum wash” sessions to teaching the foundations of call-and-response rhythm. She is a gifted educator in every sense.

Now, Kindera homes are embarking on their next challenge. Eleven homes are participating in a research project in partnership with McMaster University to study the effects of music in wound care.

“We don’t know what the results will be,” Sandy says. “Will it work? Maybe. But we are trying. We are asking the questions. We have surpassed the next level.”

Sandy continues to make bold requests of her teams, helping them overcome challenges by breaking big ideas into manageable steps.

“I do ask a lot from my teams,” she says. “But I’m lucky to be surrounded by exceptional people. That’s what makes it possible to be a changemaker.”

At Kindera Living, that spirit of curiosity and collaboration continues to shape how music, empathy, and innovation come together to support residents every day. 

Julie Lambert is the kind of caregiver every person living with dementia deserves. Working in a Long Term Care home in the Hamilton area, Julie brings compassion, intuition, and skill to her work every day. Her home has completed the MUSIC CARE CERTIFY program and proudly holds Gold-level certification, but Julie’s relationship with music began long before that. As a young person, she studied violin and dance, developing an inherent understanding of music’s emotional power. Through MUSIC CARE Certification, she has deepened that understanding, learning not just that music works, but when, how, and why to use it in care.

Julie recently shared a moment that beautifully illustrates this. A resident, living with dementia and very limited vision, was brought into the common area after receiving care. She was deeply distressed, calling out for help, fearful, agitated, and pleading to go home. Recognizing the fear behind the behaviour, Julie responded instinctively and skillfully. She knew that her resident was fond of hymns, so she approached with her iPad, selected familiar hymns from Room 217’s PATHWAYS Singing Program, and began playing Amazing Grace, softly humming along. Julie continued to provide comfort to her resident by holding her hand in a soothing motion to the beat of the song and singing the hymn with her.

Within a minute, the resident joined in, singing confidently and with pride, holding Julie’s hand, her body visibly softening. Her clenched fists relaxed. Her words shifted from fear to gratitude. Calm replaced terror, connection replaced confusion. The moment not only soothed the resident but transformed the space around her, preventing the need for medical interventions like medications to calm her down.

It doesn’t need to take great effort to shift the mood of a person living with dementia, but it does take someone with the skill to use music as a tool. Julie was able to use music intentionally and with care to help restore the safety, dignity, and peace of mind for her resident.

No matter where Jeanne Lambert finds herself, music is her companion AND her gift to the world. Jeanne is a retired nurse. She has done parish nursing and is now a funeral celebrant. Jeanne is also Music Care Certified. 

This past year has been a journey of healing, resilience, and rediscovery. Diagnosed with breast cancer at Christmas, Jeanne spent the first half of the year navigating surgery, recovery, and the physical, emotional, and spiritual adjustments that followed. Through it all, music became her lifeline.

Creating personal playlists, mastering Bluetooth technology, and attending a dance-exercise class where familiar songs lifted her spirit, Jeanne discovered firsthand how music supports relaxation, serenity, and renewal. “Music in care is not just for others, it’s for me too,” she reflects.

Now, Jeanne is turning outward again. Nearly finished hospital volunteer requirements, she is preparing to bring live singing to patients at bedsides and through pastoral care services. Though her initial dream of a bedside choir is on hold, Jeanne is embracing the role of a “one-woman bedside singer,” recognizing that even one voice, one meaningful song, can change an atmosphere.

Her love of singing also continues with her trio of 10 years, performing for community groups and seniors. Even outside formal care settings, like recording lullabies for her 18-month-old grandchild, Jeanne sees how music creates connection and joy.

As she looks ahead to re-certification, Jeanne hopes to deepen her skills, strengthen her initiatives, and ripple music care more widely. “Maybe it starts one song at a time,” she says. “But one song can mean everything.”

Carolin VanVoorst, a passionate and gifted music teacher at Shanty Bay and Johnson Street Public Schools is a changemaker in student wellness. Carolin feels today’s students require an intentional, compassionate approach to support self-regulation. “We’re seeing more students struggle with emotional regulation, big feelings over small things, and not knowing how to recover,” she shares. “Our job is to teach them positive coping strategies and emotional awareness.”

As a music teacher, Carolin sees the unique power of music in helping students feel safe to self express, take risks, and celebrate each other. “Music offers an incredible opportunity for student to be vulnerable” Her classroom fosters confidence and resilience through reflection and reassurance: Did you try your best? Do you think you did a good job? I think you did a good job.

Carolin is breaking the cycle of what she calls generational trauma around music, by combatting shaming messages from the past when students were silenced, told they couldn’t sing, placed in the back row, “that negativity stays with you”, Carolin reflects.  Instead, she focuses on instilling a pure love of music in her students.

A lifelong learner, Carolin became certified in leadership this year through her school board and is in the final stages of completing BA in Psychology started in her early years teaching in Yellow Knife. She has also written and presented research on ADHD and the barriers to treatment adherence, all contributing to her thoughtful, informed perspective on education. 

As sight Team Lead for the CERTIFY FOR SCHOOLS program at SBPS her initiative examined “emotional listening,” inviting her students to identify their emotions before and then after listening to a piece of music. “I wanted to give my students an opportunity to express themselves, develop their own musical identities and then connect to how music impacted their emotions on a personal level”. 

Carolin has known adversity in life, including undergoing chemotherapy just last year, prompting her to question the true value of music education “Is it mastering theory, or understanding compound time, or is it helping my students to feel joy in music, to hear them singing outside at breaktime, in the halls, to want piano lessons, or join musical theatre?”

Speaking to Carolin, you feel the enormous love she has for her students, her limitless desire to help them feel proud of themselves and their accomplishments, carefully, consciously building their enduring self confidence. We need more educators like Carolin who genuinely teach from a place of love and caring. 

Joseph Konty is the Music Director at Gentog  (Generations Together) in Portland, Oregon, an organization that embraces intergenerational care to promote holistic health and wellness. A recent MUSIC CARE CERTIFY INDIVIDUAL, Konty is one of the most inspiring professionals I have had the pleasure of meeting.

Gentog provides both childcare for infants to five-year-olds and respite care for adults 50+ with dementia or cognitive challenges. According to a report published by Generations United, joining the generations through meaningful cross-age relationships may decrease social isolation and increase older adults’ sense of belonging, self-esteem, and well-being, while also improving social and emotional skills of children and youth participants.

Konty joined Gentog after sending his CV on a whim, drawn to its mission. A singer-songwriter and performer from the age of 15, he toured and recorded extensively but felt unfulfilled. A personal battle with borderline personality disorder led him to inpatient care, where he felt stripped of his creativity and identity. Healing through Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, he saw an opportunity to integrate his musical talents with his educational background in counseling and pastoral care to serve others.

This vision led to Andy’s Music Club at Gentog, named after his late father, a church choir director who nurtured Konty’s musical gifts. The club provides a structured music program where participants can focus on the songwriting process from creating and composing to production, and performance. For Konty, music fosters wellness, identity, and purpose: “They remember lyrics and melodies despite cognitive challenges. When you create, you create purpose; when you have purpose, you have meaning.” Konty also leads music wellness sessions with meditation and sound baths.

Konty offers pastoral care and a dementia-friendly worship service, creating a safe, nonjudgmental space “Hymns are sung, and I share a positive message, like joy”. His work extends to family caregivers, providing outreach and support groups.

Committed to making a difference, Konty is hosting a benefit concert at Portland’s White Eagle on May 10, celebrating families affected by dementia. His goal is to produce an album featuring music created and recorded by Andy’s Music Club participants, released on iTunes—a full-circle project reinforcing the power of music in care.

In Konty’s presence, you experience true empathy and dedication. His unwavering commitment to care through music is palpable and exemplifies the profound impact of intergenerational connection, creativity, and community.