Greater Manchester is set to become the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia, thanks to over £1million of funding. Hosted by Manchester Camerata, the project will also receive in-kind support from the University of Manchester and Alzheimer’s Society.
The University of Manchester’s leading social prescribing researchers – Dr Luke Mumford and Paul Wilson – will lead on the research across three years. This vital funding will enable Manchester Camerata and Alzheimer’s Society to continue their ground breaking research-based music therapy programmes – Music in Mind (Camerata) and Singing for the Brain (Alzheimer’s Society) − to offer more musical support to people living with dementia across all of Greater Manchester.
According to the NHS, there are over 940,000 people in the UK who have dementia with one in 11 people over the age of 65 being most affected. Alzheimer’s Society suggests that by 2025 there will be over one million people with dementia in the UK, projected to rise to nearly 1.6 million by 2040.
Currently, the care of these people in the UK costs over £34billion per year. The long-term goal of this – the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia – is to use the knowledge and research built up over the next three years to analyse how the implementation of music in dementia care can reduce the need for health and care services whilst simultaneously improving quality of life.
This significant and successful bid will see both organisations run four weekly music cafes in each of the 10 Greater Manchester boroughs. Together they will collaborate with the University of Manchester and the NHS to undertake research into the impact and power that these music sessions have for people living with dementia and the way in which they can reduce pressure on hard-pressed frontline NHS and social care staff.
Manchester Camerata and Alzheimer’s Society will recruit, nurture and train a volunteer and community workforce of 300 ‘Music Champions’ who will be trained to deliver the Music Cafes, helping to support over 1000 people living with dementia in Greater Manchester across three years starting from October 2024. The research and data analysed by the University of Manchester will demonstrate the impact of embedding music support as part of dementia care and how this model can be scaled up and rolled out across the UK and result in cost-saving measures for the NHS.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “This is fantastic news for Greater Manchester, and a reminder of the power of music to shape our lives and our communities. Manchester Camerata have played a key role in our Music Commission, and I’ve seen firsthand the transformational impact of what they do in our city-region.
“They are the ideal partner to pioneer the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia, working with the Alzheimer’s Society to unlock the potential of music as therapy.
“This project will provide life-changing support to people with dementia and their carers in our 10 boroughs – support that is grounded in our communities and delivered with a real expert focus. It will also generate groundbreaking research that will influence health and care policy across the country while directly improving lives across Greater Manchester.”
Find out more about this heartwarming cause here, and find your nearest music cafe here.