#method #demented #talk
One participant started talking again
The participation, which means that the demented get to play music together with professional musicians, seems to be a miracle drug. Feeling involved is at the heart of the activity.
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So, when a group of musicians from the Lundaland Philharmonic Orchestra arrive at the Ängsgården retirement home in Sjöbo one day a week, the participants wake up to the experience of playing together with the musicians – in a group.
The participants play on simpler percussion and instruments, but it’s not really the instruments that are so important, it’s the community and the participation.
This is a treatment that is done over a longer period of time because you cannot achieve any major changes at once. It requires patience and empathy, laughter and song. Above all: to do this together. As participants are slowly coaxed into playing along, something seems to happen – they begin to open up.
– Among other things, we have seen that two people who have been silent for a long time now start talking again and a lady who was previously completely motionless in the upper body now swings maracas at our sessions, says Kristofer Wåhlander.
The background to the Music for minds project
Kristofer Wåhlander, who leads the project, introduced the British method Music in mind in Kävlinge municipality in Skåne in 2022.
It has been highly regarded and helps people with dementia regain important abilities. The method is developed by the chamber orchestra Camerata together with researchers in Manchester.
In a pilot project, experts from the Manchester Camerata Orchestra trained musicians in the Lundaland Philharmonic Orchestra as well as representatives of Kävlinge municipality’s care activities in the unique Music in Mind method for a week.
With the help of music, the method can create communication and interaction with people with severe dementia. An interesting and important project where you dared to think differently.
Read more:
Five factors that affect the risk of dementia. News 55
This is how the risk of dementia is measured. Today’s PS
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