Warwick Rotarians hear about charity helping to bring comfort to people with dementia

Members of the Warwick Rotary Club recently heard about a charity that is helping to bring comfort to people with dementia through music.

Jim Mathews, from Leicester Novus Rotary Club joined Warwick Rotarians last week at one of their Zoom meetings to tell them about 'Playlists for Life'.

'Playlists for Life' was started by Sally Magnusson in 2013 after watching her mother retreating into herself with dementia.

Sally discovered that music brought her mother, Mamie, back a sense of herself.

Research has shown that parts of the brain which dementia damages are stimulated by the parts which respond to music and also motor skills.

Dementia may affect a person’s sense of balance and space, but music can help people to move more freely and reduce their fear of falling.

'Playlists for Life' wants everyone with dementia to have a unique, personal playlist and everyone who loves or cares for them to know how to use it .

Community networks can help train companions and care workers to build personal playlists, exploring someone’s life story to gather the tunes that are most deeply attached to memories and emotions.

These are put on personal players and listened to alone or with family making living with dementia easier and happier.

Jim played a video clip of Ken – affected at about 60 and unable to walk, by playing jive music to him his carer was able to get him to move, recall memories and improved his mood.

Another video was shown of an elderly couple with one entering care and struggling to connect as he became very withdrawn.

Jim said that the playlist helped them communicate and Harry was able to enjoy a further three years in care with his family around him.

The charity has a range of resources to help carers get started with their personalised list and trains people in their use.

Thanking Jim for his presentation Warwick Rotary President David Brain commented how moving it was to see the transformation in sufferers’ lives.

A donation was later sent to support the charities work and Rotarians will bring this to the attention of local groups and practitioners who could make use of these tools.