Keynsham-based music and movement charity Make a Move has been awarded £2000 by the Hospital Saturday Fund to restart its work with older people with dementia.
Bath & North East Somerset councillor Rob Appleyard will be attending a presentation of the £2000 cheque today, Friday 9th December 2016, at Keynsham Library.
The funds will be used to deliver unique music and movement sessions to older people with dementia attending day centres in BANES.
The charity has done this work successfully for the last three years, but had been unable to run the project since September 2016 due to a lack of funding to pay the expert practitioners who deliver the sessions.
Michelle Rochester, charity founder & CEO said: “We are so grateful to the Hospital Saturday Fund for their support. These sessions have an incredible impact, including enabling beautiful moments of re-connection between the person with dementia and their carers or loved ones. It is a privilege to be part of those moments.”
Research shows that movement to music can help slow the progression of dementia, and can help maintain connections to the memories and who the person with dementia was before the illness.
Through movement, older people with dementia can also maintain and even improve their physical experience and social engagement in life.
Additional benefits of dance/movement therapy with older adults and people with dementia, including those in advanced stages, are an increase in vitality, self-expression, relaxation, alertness, self-esteem, social connection, alleviation of anxiety, loneliness, and isolation, flexibility and strength.