A Choir in Every Care Home

A national initiative to enrich care home life through singing

Launched in May 2015, A Choir in Every Care Home is an ambitious initiative to explore how music and singing can feature regularly in care homes across the UK. Funded and initiated by The Baring Foundation, it is a unique collaboration between 35 leading organisations from the world of adult social care, music and healthcare research. It is being led by three major organisations in the field: Live Music Now, which provides national leadership for musicians working in the care sector; Sound Sense, the UK professional association for community musicians and the Sidney De Haan Research Centre, providing cutting edge research on the medical and social impacts of singing.

Singing can lift spirits, but it can also do much more. There is now hard evidence to show that music participation can help those living with dementia to engage and remember; and more generally, to alleviate the effects of breathing diseases; reduce stress and anxiety; and build relationships between residents, carers and staff. We want to find the best ways to bring these benefits to older people, and support care homes to take part, on an ambitious scale.

Together, we hope to improve the quality of life for people in care homes, and help create happy environments for carers, family and care home staff. This is urgently needed as 70% of the growing numbers of people in care homes have dementia or severe memory problems (according to the Alzheimer’s Society). Effective and cost-effective solutions must be found.

To find out the latest project news, and access a range of excellent resources made available free of charge, please visit the website www.achoirineverycarehome.co.uk