Creative Kirklees Award: Music and Memory
MUSIC can be incredibly powerful … never more so than when it’s used in therapy to help people with dementia or disabilities that affect their memory.
That’s what Music and Memory is all about, using music in a therapeutic way to greatly enhance people’s emotional and mental wellbeing.
They not only listen to music - from Bon Jovi to Frank Sinatra and Italian folk songs to Bob Marley – but they also make it themselves by playing all kinds of instruments.
The groups for people aged over 50, or younger if they have a specific memory concern, meet in Huddersfield and Dewsbury every fortnight and this pioneering project is run in close cooperation with carer support charity Carers Count, a mental health charity called Community Links Engagement and Recovery (CLEAR) and the community connections outreach at Holy Trinity Church near Greenhead Park. The group meets at the church.
Group facilitator Rebecca Parnaby-Rooke said: “Music and Memory is a pioneering way to bring services, service users and community establishments together to take creative and personalised social support into the hearts of our localities.
“Our hope would be that we serve as an example of what can be done and inspire others to follow our lead.”
One of its members is Lena and her case shows just how Music and Memory can change someone’s life.
She lived alone and had become increasingly isolated but her daughter-in-law, Emily, encouraged her to attend and she loved it right from the start, singing and playing the instruments.
Rebecca said: “Lena has begun to build new relationships with others her own age living with memory issues.
“She is a lively, playful member of the group, often starting interactions with other group members and commenting on how much fun she is having.
“She now has a regular opportunity to meet with people outside of her family.”
Music and Memory runs at Thrive at Connect, Bond
Street, Dewsbury, on the first and third Thursdays of each month and at Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Street, Huddersfield
on the second and fourth Thursdays.
Both sessions run from 1pm-3pm.
For more information call Rebecca on 07526 723488 or email rebecca@sakuramusic. co.uk.