Bev Foster
I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Room 217 Foundation, a Canadian health arts social enterprise that uses music to improve the care experience. We work to make music more integrated in within caring communities. I'm a Community Research Fellow of the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community, and I love to speak and write on the power of music, especially in life limiting situations.
I come at this work from a career in music education and I have been and still am a family caregiver. My interest is in knowledge translation and applied research and solutions that will help caregivers. We have designed music care tools for palliative and dementia care that target specific outcomes. Our team has developed a 52-hour standardized training that helps caregivers become more confident to use music in their regular scope of practice effectively and responsibly. We have held sixteen national MUSIC CARE CONFERENCES in Canada which inspire and inform attendees about the power of music in health, care and wellness. Most recently, we have launched MUSIC CARE CERTIFY, a quality improvement program for caring communities who want to embed music into their culture in a sustainable way.
Interests
Music integration with care systems, music and dementia, music and palliative care, music wellness