A moment of celebration! 

Posted by heatheredwards on September 11, 2024

A moment of celebration!  Outcomes of the four year scientific study of Music Mirrors conducted by University of Zürich have been published in August: Frontiers in Dementia  Edwards, Heather; Oppikofer, Sandra; Aschwanden, Damaris (2024). The use of audio-biographical cues in dementia care: a four-year evaluation in Swiss hospitals, care, and domestic homes. Frontiers. Collection. https://doi.org/10.3389/frdem.2024.1429290 

We are so grateful to Sandra Oppikofer and her colleague Damaris Aschwanden of the University of Geneva for their tireless work and generosity in bringng together evidence of how making and using Music Mirrors can enrich the lives of people living with memory loss and of those caring for them.  Something apparently so simple and intuitive really can make a difference…

The soundprint of your life

Posted by heatheredwards on April 27, 2022

We all need comfort and reassurance at times when life seems uncertain or threatening.  Feeling steady in our own identities can help us to deal with the unknown and unfamiliar, and to connect with those around us. It’s very simple to make a personal soundprint, a toolkit of scraps of sounds, words and music to bring security and happiness when we need it.  A few reminders of moments of wellbeing – the sound of a blackbird, the words of a football chant, theme tune of a favourite radio or television programme – can help to change mood of a day.  List them, write them as an email, link them to sound via Youtube, and then you can bring those moments to life whenever you need them, just with a smartphone or tablet.  You can share them easily with friends or those caring for you to build bridges of connection and understanding. Despite the name, Music Mirrors are as much about sound and words as about music.   They’re not playlists but uniquely personal toolkits for life.  Making one for yourself can be a joy at any age, and helping someone else to do so is a rare privilege.  The two videos and thoughts on the homepage here give an idea of where to start, but each of us has our own very individual soundprint…    Don’t wait – begin today!

Music in the care and support of people living with dementia. Symposium: 4th March, 2022. Venue: Reusspark Centre for Care and Support, 5524 Niederwil, Switzerland

Posted by heatheredwards on August 30, 2020

Delighted to receive the brochure for the 2022 symposium!
Outcomes of the four year Music Mirrors research project by the University of Zurich Centre for Gerontology will be presented in the context of insights from specialists from the world of music and dementia. In the afternoon a publication and documentary film about Music Mirrors will be launched, with practical workshops on integrating music into daily care, and performances by students of the Luzern Conservatoire of compositions and improvisations inspired by Music Mirrors.I am so grateful to the Centre for Gerontology of Zurich University and to all the organisations who have supported and made this work possible.
Further details can be found on the Reusspark website https://www.reusspark.ch/

Music Mirrors in practice: Journal of Public Mental Health, August 2020

Posted by heatheredwards on August 14, 2020

‘Making things personal: a project promoting the wellbeing of older residents and staff in sheltered housing and care homes’. This account of work by NorseCare using Music Mirrors has been published in Journal of Public Mental Health in August’s special edition on Ageing.

Free Music Mirrors workshop in Norwich

Posted by heatheredwards on November 8, 2019

Eaton Dementia Friends will host a free Music Mirrors workshop on
Monday November 18th, 9.30 -11.30 am at Ipswich Road United Reform Church, Norwich. Music Mirrors use sound and music cues to fix memories that comfort, reassure and give joy. This informal workshop shows how to make Music Mirrors and outlines the ways in which they can be useful to any one of us.

Contact [email protected], 01603 457802 or 01603 452404 if you would like to attend.

14th UK Dementia Congress, November 5th -7th 2019, Doncaster Racecourse.

Posted by heatheredwards on October 14, 2019

NorseCare, https://www.norsecare.co.uk/ who manage 23 Residential Homes and 14 Housing With Care schemes across Norfolk. recently adopted Music Mirrors as one of the elements of both their Dementia and Wellbeing strategies. On Wednesday, November 6th they will be describing their programme of training for carers and showcasing work making and using Music Mirrors with residents at Robert Kett Court, Wymondham. (Session 2.4 at 3.10pm)

Generous award by WaveLength for Music Mirrors work

Posted by heatheredwards on October 14, 2019

 

Many grateful thanks to WaveLength, a charity working to use technology to fight loneliness across the UK,  for their generous award to us of two tablets!  This opens up new vistas for Music Mirrors locally in Norwich: it will enable Come Singing and Eaton Dementia Friends to help individuals to make their own Music Mirrors which can then be presented ready for use with families and carers on the loaned tablets. It really is a wonderful development and we will report on progress in due course!

To find out more about WaveLength’s excellent work, visit their website: https://wavelength.org.uk/

Understanding Dementia: Music Mirrors article in the Guardian supplement

Posted by heatheredwards on May 22, 2019

 

As part of Dementia Action Week, www.healthawareness.co.uk/dementia is launching its 2019 Understanding Dementia campaign with a special dementia supplement in The Guardian. Making a Music Mirror is one very simple, cost-free thing that any one of us can do to help someone who is vulnerable, whether through dementia, illness or adversity of any kind. Read more about this and other helpful cost-free initiatives in: https://www.healthawareness.co.uk/dementia/how-music-and-singing-can-support-people-with-dementia/

‘A torch to take into the darkness’: an article in Enable magazine

Posted by heatheredwards on May 15, 2019

We’re delighted to highlight Saskia Harper’s article in Enable, the UK’s leading disability and lifestyle magazine. Available online: http://enablemagazine.co.uk/
15 May, 2019 – Making memories with Music Mirrors. The article coincides very helpfully with Dementia Action Week, but don’t forget that a Music Mirror can be useful for any one of us when we are vulnerable through illness or adversity. Make your own now, and help someone else to capture sounds of their most positive memories and associations.

Norfolk Community Foundation grant funding

Posted by heatheredwards on November 14, 2018

 

We are thrilled and grateful to announce that Music Mirrors has been awarded a generous grant by Norfolk Community Foundation from the Royal London Community Foundation.

The support, and guidance of Norfolk Community Foundation have underpinned so much of what we have achieved from tiny beginnings. This present funding will enable us to go much further in our existing work of raising awareness of how Music Mirrors, so easily  made,  can make a real difference to vulnerable people.  We could not be more grateful to them and to the Royal London.