headsets for dementia

Another full and fulfilling meeting.  We had time for a lot of fellowship, which is always appreciated, we had three tables of Rotarians in attendance and two substantial reports as well as our guest speaker.  Plus it was Book List and we shared our list of what we've been reading lately.  Our speaker Jo Matthews is a music therapy volunteer for the Roy Fagan Centre.  Jo spoke eloquently and passionately about the value of music to unlock memories and assist in calming patients who are suffering from dementia.  Chair for the night Jim Colley heads our Community Service committee.  Jim delegated the management of the Dementia project to a subcommittee made up of Murray, Jill and Jenny, who each have professional experience and expertise to offer.

Left to right, Chairman Jim Colley, Speaker Jo Matthews, Occupational Therapist at Roy Fagan Centre Mila Bogovac and Barnaby Heaton, doing great tech support duty for Jo.

Jo was in a sense preaching to the converted as Rotarians elsewhere have been paving the way to show the value of music to assist in the treatment of dementia.  The Music for Dementia project was pioneered by the Rotary Club of Geraldton-Greenough in Western Australia, which gained national publicity for the cause.  As you can see on the banner in the above picture, they brought Jaycar on board as a sponsor, enabling us to immediately benefit from their good work.

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Jaycar Electronics customer service is tops! When we ordered these headsets our customer service agent Jaye put two and two together. He knew of the Rotary project to treat dementia with music. Word travels fast! Their company training had included awareness of Rotary’s interest in this approach and Jaye was proud to assist us get underway with bringing the Music for Dementia project to Tasmania.

Big thanks to Helen Shield of ABC Radio for telling this Rotary story as part of Dementia Action Week. Both Rotary Club of North Hobart and Rotary Club of Howrah have adopted the pioneering Music for Dementia project of the Rotary Club of Geraldton- Greenough in WA, at the request of two residential facilities. Helen is pictured with Roslyn Teirney and Bob Hardy trying on the Bluetooth headphones for comfort.

The headsets purchased by our club have now been delivered to the Roy Fagan Centre.  Staff there are enthusiastic and keen to see how this project goes.  We can but wish them luck.