JULY 2018: A Day In The Life, Making Social Happiness Key for Dementia & General Aged Care

My name is Andrew and I have been running my company "Sing Us A Song Music Therapy & Well-Being" for just over 2 years now in Sydney, Australia. Our services include group interactive music therapy for dementia care, Interactive music concerts for general aged care, Interactive music trivia and game workshops and aged care choirs.

A typical week for Sing Us A Song involves visiting numerous homes around the Upper and Lower North Shore, Northern Beaches, Hills District and Greater Western Sydney regions and I am busy making sure every home gets an experience tailored to the needs and wants of each home and their residents. To create social happiness you need to make sure each individual within the group feels valued and included.

Every week on Mondays and Friday mornings I conduct a beautiful choir of residents at Regis Hornsby. All the staff and residents are a joy to work with and I have seen first hand the wonderful improvements this shared musical experience delivers. The residents all have instruments and words for each of the songs and we are working towards a concert in August, 2018 for the local Abbotsleigh Preparatory Girls School.

Monday afternoons I visit the wonderful Thompson Health Care Wahroonga facility and offer a dementia specific interactive therapy session that involves each resident partaking in rhythm games and sing-a-longs. I have been working at Wahroonga House since it opened in 2017 and the results we have had with residents and social interaction are impressive. A large number of residents who were insular and closed off are now very confident during the sessions and the music can make a huge difference to their overall mood for the hour and also afterwards. A lot of families visit during the sessions and this is a wonderful interactive experience. I never get tired of seeing families bond over singing and music, It's incredible!

Tuesdays I work at many facilities including the beautifully located Turramurra House, The northern beaches life styled Mona Vale House and the new 5 star facility Arcare Glenhaven.

All of these facilities adopt a general entertainment programme which involves the use of instruments but with a slightly more complex show designed for multi tasking and being involved in an interactive concert. These concerts are offered to a larger number of residents and is focused on a social group result.

Every Wednesday afternoon I am out at BUPA St Ives in their Dementia High care section. We work on rhythm and audience participation games as well as singing along to songs together. The concert is smaller in scope and designed at helping individuals concentrate and focus. The programme has been running for over 10 weeks now and I am extremely pleased with how the residents and staff are taking to the activities. The staff are a great help and catering to the individual in High care and visual aids and cues are paramount for success of the programme. It is lovely to see recluse residents come out of their shell while music they loved as a child is playing. Memory is a curious thing and studies in dementia music therapy care suggest that music and lyrics are very embedded.

St Marys Boronia House in Western Sydney is a wonderful facility I work at on Fridays and is my longest running programme. The residents have had a long time to adapt to the programme in Dementia care and therefore understand exactly what to do when the concerts are being performed. Some of the residents are slightly younger so the concert is tailored accordingly involving a focus on dancing and movement as well as instruments for the residents who wish to remain seated. It is nice to be able to cater for each individual within the group and make sure everyone is having a good time.

Social happiness and a positive musical experience is key to individual results in music therapy based performance. I look forward to discussing future topics every month on here.

Thanks again for reading!

Andrew

Social Happiness = Individual Results

#musictherapy #agedcaremusic #singusasongmusic #Carechoirs