Veterans’ Charity Celebrates The Power Of Music In World Alzheimer’s Month

Royal Star & Garter is celebrating the power of music and song to mark World Alzheimer’s Month in September, National Day of Arts in Care Homes on Thursday 24 September, and to support the Music for Dementia UK campaign.

Royal Star & Garter provides loving compassionate care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia. It has put together a video showing the importance of music in care, and the impact it has on residents, especially those living with dementia.

Music plays a vital role in the care provided by the charity. For people living with dementia, music helps to lessen anxiety and depression and can become a communication lifeline when a resident’s speech fails. It prompts an individual’s recall and stimulates breathing. Above all, it brings emotional release and joy to residents.

Music in the Homes is carefully chosen and wide-ranging to reflect residents’ choices. These vary from Beethoven and Mozart, to wartime classics and modern masters. The range of activities which involve music, such as Music Club, the Star & Garter Singers choir and Movement to Music, also reflect its significance.

High Wycombe resident Harold said: “Music brings back a lot of happy memories. It makes you feel good. When you sing it releases something inside that makes you feel better than before you sang. And that’s how it should be!”

Pauline Shaw, Director of Care at Royal Star & Garter, said: “It’s wonderful to see the impact music has in our Homes. The positive effects it has on our residents, and especially those living with dementia, are well known.”