MUSIC and DEMENTIA
The Voice of our Memory
Would you like to sing together with people with dementia and their family & caregivers?
This guide helps you to get started with your CONTACT CHOIR, as well as practical as musical.
The Voice of our Memory is a practical and musical step-by-step guide to start your CONTACT CHOIR. A few realistic situations are described and the checklist at the end is very practical for every caregiver or volunteer.
* How do you start a contact choir?
* How to convince the employees, volunteers, and direction team?
* Who can sing along in a contact choir?
* How many people can sing together?
* Where can a session be held?
* How long a session takes?
* When do you plan a session?
* How often do you come together with this contact choir?
* Where do you find the resources to realize a contact choir?
* How to select the songs to sing?
* How and where can you find a musical companion?
....
Hanne Deneire, Impact Composer
"The Voice of Our Memory” was a successful national Belgium Project in 2011 because of the Music for Life campaign supporting this new idea in those times. Hanne created and led the project in collaboration with House of Music, Koor&Stem, and the Expertise Center Dementia Flanders.
As a result, the impact composer wrote the full project down as a step-by-step guide that every volunteer, singer, caregiver, or family member could inspire.
Together with her next book "Remembering through Music", she traveled all over Europe, Canada, and the States, to share her passion and insights about music and the elderly and inspire each listener.
Till the end of 2013, she led this project in Belgium and then developed the next steps you can also find on her platform Music&Dementia.
She knew that it was the first step toward a bigger goal. The first step is to give voice and music an important place in the healthcare sector. Not only to find a contact choir but also to take an attitude to communicate musically with people with dementia in daily care. This makes everybody more happy, as well as the caregiver and the residents.
With the support of Expertise Center Dementia Flanders.
Director, Jurn Verschraegen.
Jonas Oomen
Music expert, Amsterdam
Everyone should check out The books about Music&Dementia written by Hanne Deneire. With this book about implementing music in the daily care of people with dementia, she re-invents the healthcare sector. She is one of the top 5 most- inspiring speakers I have ever heard!
Wilma Matheij
Fundraiser, The Netherlands
The combination of the use of music and change in attitude that is achieved in this approach is very impressive! I highly recommend 'Remembering through Music' to staff members as well as managers of healthcare facilities. This approach is inspiring, innovative and, when implemented well, cost-effective.