As part of Dementia Action Week (17th – 23rd May) Manchester Camerata is proud to highlight the groundbreaking work it is in engaged in: using music to improve lives for those living with dementia and their carers.
From providing vital therapy for people living with dementia with its Music in Mind and Music in Mind: Remote programmes, to forming long-term dementia research partnerships with The University of Manchester, Manchester Camerata’s team of highly-skilled, world-class musicians and therapist-practitioners puts its dementia – and additional health and wellbeing work – at the very heart of its existence. It is more than just an orchestra.
This focus on dementia therapy is part of Camerata’s dedication to putting health and wellbeing at the heart of the organisation – using the healing power of music to change and improve lives. Central to this focus is the orchestra’s physical move to The Monastery in Gorton, where it is creating an international innovation centre for music and health through partnerships with local community groups, schools, care homes and other organisations. Working closely with The Monastery itself, Manchester Camerata will embed itself into the Gorton community, working with local youth organisations, MPs and other key members of the community to identify and offer support where it is both needed and wanted. Gorton has the fifth highest family poverty rate in the UK at 48% and it is also a community on the cusp of change. By working with local partners, Manchester Camerata wants to help bring people together and be part of that change
Manchester Camerata’s award-winning specialist music therapy programme is already making an impact on thousands of individuals living with dementia across the North West and the organisation has plans to upscale this globally through devising, running and nurturing several specialist projects, as listed below:
Music in Mind: Improving the lives of people living with dementia through music
Since 2012, Manchester Camerata has been delivering this bespoke and pioneering music programme, which it developed specifically to improve the lives of people living with dementia: using music as a means and a tool to express themselves and help communicate with others.
Manchester Camerata’s resident team of highly skilled musicians and therapists deliver this programme in care homes across the North West, working with care home staff and residents to deliver regular group music-making sessions designed to improve the quality of life and mental health of those living with dementia.
Developed through research in partnership with the University of Manchester, this ‘transformative and continually inspiring’ initiative uses group-based musical improvisation to help encourage and empower people with dementia. ‘Through their Music in Mind programme, Manchester Camerata are opening-up new possibilities for people living with dementia. By emphasising personal creativity, musicality and freedom of self-expression, Music in Mind epitomises person-centred care and well-being in living with dementia’ (Prof. John Keady, Professor of Mental Health Nursing and Older People, Dementia And Ageing, University of Manchester).
Evaluations demonstrate consistent benefits: increased social interaction with other residents (100%), increased activity levels outside Music in Mind sessions (77%), a greater sense of wellbeing (100%), increased musical interaction and confidence to express oneself musically (88%).
Manchester Camerata are now world leaders with its Music in Mind programme, training carers and musicians in both Japan and Taiwan, Europe and soon South Korea. Since the project began in 2012, the organisation has worked with over 6,000 people living with dementia and aim to double this figure by 2022.
Music in Mind Remote: dementia-music training for carers
Music in Mind: Remote was developed as a response to the Covid pandemic, when delivering in-house Music in Mind sessions in care homes became impossible due to lockdown. With the pressures that the care workers were under, and subsequently how the residents were suffering when their everyday routine [important for people living with dementia] was thrown into disarray – Manchester Camerata developed this online version of its Music in Mind programme, to reach out to and support care homes and care workers.
With thanks to a £50,000 grant from the government’s Innovate UK scheme in July 2020, Manchester Camerata was able to fund the creation of Music in Mind: Remote – enabling them to create an online training resource for care workers who work with people living with dementia. The training is done remotely by the orchestra’s team of specially-trained musicians and resident music therapists. The care workers learn the Music in Mind techniques from the musicians/therapists via zoom and online workshops, enabling them to pass on their new-found (or reinforced) skills to their residents through doing their own Music in Mind workshops.
Music in Mind International: Delivering the benefits of our dementia work across the globe
With thanks to the British Council, Manchester Camerata is delighted to be able to invite a group of healthcare professionals, music students and professional musicians (National Symphony Orchestra) from Taiwan to attend its Music in Mind: Remote training sessions, which will be held online over 3 days and then practised by the participants in a care setting in Taipei.
With the pandemic putting a hold on plans for Camerata musicians and therapists to visit Taipei to deliver Music in Mind workshops in person, it is hoped that, in the meantime, this online training will serve as a good foundation training course and the visit will resume in the near future.
