Musical memories with serious purpose
A SOUTHPORT day service for Sefton residents with dementia staged a series of special events in support of a national initiative to raise awareness of the condition.
Staff, service users and families at Ainsdale’s Brookdale Resource Centre took part in activities to mark Dementia Awareness Week, organised by the Alzheimer’s Society.
Highlights of the week at the centre – run by adult social care provider New Directions – included two fun afternoons of reminiscence and musical memories.
One featured the return of popular Southport vocalist Sophie Bennett, with her wide-ranging repertoire of classic songs from the last half-century and beyond.
The second featured music from Remember When, a three-piece jukebox band from the Bootle-based charity Sefton Opera, which provides health and wellbeing therapies to older people.
There was also a more serious side to the week, which included an information and advice event on dementia issues with representatives of the Alzheimer’s Society, and a training session on how to become one of Sefton’s many Dementia Friends.
Brookdale manager Salwa Moustafa said it was important for the service to support campaigns like Dementia Awareness Week.
She said: “A key objective of this week’s events was to provide fun for our service users, and thanks to the efforts of our staff and the entertainers they all joined in and had a really enjoyable time.
“However, it’s also important to use national events like this to raise awareness of dementia in our area, and the effect it can have on local sufferers and their families, and in doing also challenge the stigma associated with the condition.”
Figures show that every three seconds someone in the world develops dementia, and that by 2050 about 131.5 million people around the globe will have the condition.
Brookdale Resource Centre enables the carers of service users with advanced dementia to have an important respite.
It offers activities, including arts and crafts, sensory stimulation and music and reminiscence therapies. For more about Brookdale, contact Salwa Moustafa on 01704 571026.