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Mindsong

Location: Outreach : Mindsong

Mindsong

 

 

  • Mindsong: music for people with dementia in Gloucestershire 

  • Mindsong uses registered music therapists to work with groups of dementia sufferers in care homes across the county.
  • Our music therapists are also training care home activity coordinators to run singing groups themselves. 
  • A Circle Dance for Dementia workshop (March 2010) has resulted in around twelve centres offering circle dance (mainly seated) as an ongoing activity
  • For the 2010 Gloucester Three Choirs Festival an exciting collaboration with Live Music Now South West  takes the Festival to ten care homes all over Gloucestershire.  Highly talented young professional LMN musicians are giving a series of three concerts in each home, with the last concert at each venue taking place during Festival week (7 -14 August 2010).
mindsong
  
As part of Three Choirs Plus, developing a sustainable service is key to the Mindsong charity. We train volunteers to provide valued support for both therapist and participants.
By the end of 2009 Mindsong had worked with well over 100 people with dementia, at eleven venues.

This year our expanded programme will reach many more people with dementia

  
More about Mindsong

Mindsong is the social inclusion strand of Three Choirs Plus, the community and outreach arm of the Three Choirs Festival, which  takes music therapy to people with dementia across Gloucestershire as its core cativity.  As other musical activities are added,  so  the number of people with dementia that Mindsong can reach increases.    

The Alzheimer’s Society has reported that there are at least 700,000 people with dementia in the UK and that this figure will exceed one million by 2025. In Gloucestershire there are at least eight to ten thousand dementia sufferers at present. Two thirds live in the community and the rest occupy most of the places in care home.

For people with dementia, music therapy can improve quality of life, emotional wellbeing and sense of identity. It may also have a positive effect on memory and health. Mindsong seeks to deliver music therapy in an affordable way by running group, rather than, individual sessions.

Mindsong aims to:

  • provide enjoyment and emotional and psychological benefits to people with dementia
  • provide linkage with the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival
  • raise awareness of the value of music therapy for people with dementia
  • train care home activity coordinators to lead musical activities themselves
  • provide training for volunteers to assist with its activities
  • ensure a sustainable legacy for dementia sufferers in Gloucestershire 

All music therapy sessions are led by registered music therapists. They are assisted by volunteers who support the older people taking part. Music is made by the participants themselves, for themselves.

 

For more information about Mindsong, and its work, the project now has its own website at www.mindsong.org.uk.


Read published articles about Mindsong to learn more;

The Mindsong project: music therapy for older people with dementia (Rachel Darnley-Smith 2007)

  Mindsong: festival outreach to people with dementia (Anthea Holland and Jane Crampton. Journal of Dementia Care 1 2009)

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