About
About Music for Life
Music for Life is a project pioneering and developing interactive music workshops for people living with dementia.
Work takes place in residential homes, hospitals and special day care centres. The project aims to:
- Enhance the quality of life of its participants
- Demonstrate to carers the emotional, social and physical potential of people in their care.
It focuses on people who can be isolated and disempowered as a result of the advanced stage of their dementia.
During projects, specially trained musicians work alongside small groups of people with dementia and their carers - drawing out individuals and enhancing communication.
Musicians interact with participants - identifying and building on areas still intact within a person suffering the losses associated with the later stages of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia: memory, physical capacities, personality changes and accompanying loss of identity.
Participant’s personalities come through in the work. Carers who are also part of the team can then re-evaluate their care of individuals in the light of their experience and observations during the project.
Increased Quality of Life
Music for Life raises awareness of the possibilities for increased quality of life for people in this care sector, and offers three interlinked strands of work:
- Music improvisation workshops for people living with dementia
- Working with staff to enhance their understanding of the emotional needs of people with dementia as part of a person-centred approach to dementia care
- Training and developing professional musicians to work in this field
Music for Life was founded by Linda Rose in 1993 and developed together with an expanding team of musicians in association with Jewish Care. Music for Life is now managed by Wigmore Hall
Some Key Dates
1993
Music for Life founded by Linda Rose, investigating approaches to working with older people in residential and day care settings with musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama working in Jewish Care settings.
1997
Music for Life invited to participate in an action research programme for the European Alzheimer’s Clearing House to look at the specific challenges presented to care and nursing staff and musicians working with people with severe dementia.
1998-2003
Music for Life worked on a training and research partnership with the orchestra Sinfonia 21. This led to the SHIMMER project, a research programme with Hammersmith Hospital and their Department of Geriatric Medicine.
2002-2005
A three year programme with Jewish Care exploring possibilities to integrate workshops and staff development more closely.
2003
Music for Life’s work with Jewish Care reached the finals of the Department of Health ‘Health and Social Care Awards’ (Older People section).
2005
Music for Life integrated into the work of Jewish Care’s Dementia Care Development Project to participate and contribute to the overall development of provision for people with dementia across the organisation.
2005-2008
Musician development programme Dementia Awareness together with Wigmore Hall Learning, run in partnership with Westminster Adult Services, NHS Westminster and service providers in the City of Westminster.
The projects have trained musicians from the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia, as well as community musicians wishing to extend their work into this challenging area.
2009
Management of Music for Life transfers to Wigmore Hall.
A partnership with Dementia UK is established to continue to develop and deliver projects. Working alongside managers and staff from each care setting dementia facilitators help explore how the experience of Music for Life can leave a legacy and provide links to further opportunities for increasing skills and knowledge of staff, thus influencing the delivery of care to other service users in the care setting.
