- Music for Dementia 2020 and Live Music Now have launched the Musical Care Taskforce with more than 60 leading figures from across the music, dementia, health, social and care sectors
- The Taskforce will work towards making music an essential element of dementia care
Music for Dementia and Live Music Now have launched a new Musical Care Taskforce with the aim to make music an essential element of dementia care.
The Taskforce, which brings together more than 60 leading representatives from across the music, dementia, health and social care sectors, will look at ways to bring music to people living with dementia who are not able to access music otherwise.
A wide body of research has demonstrated significant benefits of music for people living with dementia, including reducing anxiety, depression and agitation, providing an alternative channel of communication and connecting people with those around them through shared musical moments.
Music for Dementia is a campaign to make music available for everyone living with dementia by the end of 2020. To create this Taskforce, Music for Dementia have partnered with Live Music Now, a UK-wide charity that delivers interactive music programmes in care homes, hospitals and a range of community and healthcare settings.
Grace Meadows, Programme Director at Music for Dementia and a senior music therapist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to grow and enhance the excellent work already happening in many care settings across the UK. Through the Taskforce we aim to significantly accelerate and expand the understanding of the benefits of weaving music through the care that is provided to people living with dementia. We believe having a strong network in place will help achieve this and as an outcome see more care settings making music a part of their core offer.”
Members of the Musical Care Taskforce will be brought together in a series of meetings over the next 18 months, working through their organisations to advance the objectives of the group. They are actively looking for other dementia groups from across the sector to join the Taskforce and help shape the campaign as well as to contribute to activity for the next 18 months, with more information available via the campaign website http://www.musicfordementia.org.uk
Evan Dawson, Executive Director of Live Music Now said: “Engaging with music can significantly improve the lives of people living with dementia, as well as their carers and families. It doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive, but it does need to be done well. By sharing these ideas and good practices, we aim to ‘demystify’ music – so that everyone can join in, and experience the medical and social benefits, and sheer joy of making great music together.”
Neil Utley, Founder and Trustee of The Utley Foundation, said: “Everyone in this group has a huge part to play and only by linking together will our efforts be maximised. Whether we are involved in changing the way music is distributed, helping people create playlists or delivering therapy, we are part of the same national programme. A programme that can, and will, transform lives.”
The Music for Dementia 2020 campaign is supported by Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Music for Dementia ambassador and BBC Radio presenter and host of Desert Island Discs, Lauren Laverne.
The campaign was launched in January 2019 following research by specialist think tank The International Longevity Centre UK (ILC-UK) and The Utley Foundation, which outlined the need for better public awareness around the power of music for people living with dementia.
Douglas Noble, Strategic Director for Live Music Now, said: “We are starting from the position, based on the report from the International Longevity Centre-UK’s Commission and LMN’s own “Live Music in Care” report that there are many benefits to people living with dementia from engaging with music. We want to use this taskforce to make sure all dementia care settings make music part of the care they offer.”
There are currently over 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK – supported by 700,000 informal carers who also require help.
Visit http://www.musicfordementia.org.uk for more information, to sign up to the Music for Dementia newsletter and to become part of the Taskforce.
Notes for Editors
About Music for Dementia 2020
Music for Dementia 2020 was launched in January 2019, following research published by the International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK), the UK’s specialist think tank on the impact of longevity on society and The Utley Foundation. The campaign works closely with other dementia groups and charities to act as an umbrella organisation for music and dementia. The Utley Foundation’s funding for Music for Dementia 2020 will act as a catalyst to create local and national projects, from understanding how to create the right environments in care settings, through to the use of radio, participation in music making, building playlists, listening to performances and music therapy – with the aim of using music to enhance care pathways. It will look to mobilise government and the entire music industry to change the way it thinks.
About The Utley Foundation
The Utley Foundation was founded in 2014 by Neil and Nicky Utley. The Foundation exists to advance social causes and to act as a catalyst for greater funding and wider action for the causes it supports. Music is a personal passion of the founders and trustees and underpins many of the key funding areas of interest to the foundation. The trust has other charitable objectives including Children and Overseas Aid.
About Live Music Now
Live Music Now works with a diverse range of children and older people who rarely have the opportunity to experience live music – some of whom are very disadvantaged. These people often face difficulties in communicating, cut off from the joy and pleasures of participating and sharing with others. LMN’s approach to overcoming these barriers is through the quality of its musicians and evidence-based workshops. LMN’s approach has been developed for over 40 years, organised through a network of seven branches across the UK, in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (LMN Scotland is a separate but linked charity). They support over 320 individual musicians every year, bringing their music to over 120,000 vulnerable children and older people. More information at www.livemusicnow.org.uk