What are we trying to do?
Over £1 million has been secured to fund the first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia in the UK. The centre – hosted by Manchester Camerata – will support the running of 4 music cafes per week across each of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs. 

 

All the music cafes are built around music theory, with ‘Music in Mind’ sessions based on a Manchester Camerata music programme and ‘Singing for the Brain’ based on an Alzheimer’s Society programme where people with dementia come together to sing their favourite songs. 

 

The intention is to recruit and train over 300 ‘Music Champions’ who will run the Music Café sessions. The cafes will support over 1,000 people with dementia across Greater Manchester, helping them to express themselves through music. 

 

ARC-GM will help to evaluate the 3-year programme of music cafes, identifying the impact of the cafes on the people who attend them, as well as assessing whether they reduce healthcare costs for the NHS. 

 

 

Why is this important?
Currently, it is estimated that there are around 1 million people in the UK with dementia, with their care costing the NHS over £34 billion per year. So, it’s important to find ways to improve the health and wellbeing of people with dementia while also reducing the cost of their care. 

 

 

How are we doing it?
As the music cafes run across their 3-year funding period, ARC-GM will help to evaluate their impact on the people who attend them. We will do this using, with people’s consent, the GM Care Record to access the health records (with all identifying information removed) of people with dementia who attend the cafes. We will be able to see if there are changes in their health or care during the period they attend the cafes and the periods afterwards. 

 

By the end of the funding, the evidence we collect can be used to make decisions about whether music cafes for people with dementia should be used more widely across the UK in the future.

 

 

Who are we working with?
This is a collaborative study involving:
•    Manchester Camerata
•    Alzheimer’s Society
•    The University of Manchester

 

 

Funding information
Over £1 million of funding was committed by Andy Burnham (Mayor of Greater Manchester), Sir Richard Lees (Chair of the NHS Greater Manchester) and the National Academy for Social Prescribing’s Power of Music Fund to enable creation of the Greater Manchester Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia – hosted by Manchester Camerata. The project receives in-kind support from the University of Manchester and Alzheimer’s Society.

 

 

More information

 

 

 

Programme Manager
Gill Rizzello
gill.rizzello@manchester.ac.uk