As part of Manchester Camerata's successful bid to become UK’s First Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia – we are bringing our ground-breaking Music in Mind programme for people living with dementia to all 10 Greater Manchester boroughs.
Music Cafés for people living with dementia and their carers run weekly in community centres, church halls and dementia support groups in Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan & Leigh. Each Music Café provides in the moment person-centred care for people living with dementia based upon our award winning Music in Mind techniques.
Click here to find a Music Café near you >
At each Music Café participants – ie those living with dementia and their carers – are invited to take part in music making using a wide range of percussive instruments (no previous musical experience needed). The sessions create a meaningful conversation without words.
As part of this Centre of Excellence Music Café initiative across Greater Manchester – we will also train over 300 members of the public (to be called Music Champions) in our Music in Mind techniques – eventually enabling them to run their own Music Cafés. To help recruit these Music Champions and set up Music Cafés, we are working with local partners in each borough, including Age UK, Mind, Together Dementia Support, HMR Circle and Bolton Dementia Support. The training of Music Champions to run these sessions will directly support over 1000 people living with dementia in Greater Manchester over the next three years.
