The Canberra Symphony Orchestra will this week launch a new program called Music and Memory to investigate the benefits of music for people living with dementia. The pilot program, which is being delivered in partnership with Goodwin Aged Care Services and ActewAGL, will attempt to measure positive behavioural changes linked to concert experiences over the program’s eight-week duration for a study group at Goodwin House in Ainslie.

Canberra Symphony Orchestra bassoonist and audiologist Kristen Sutcliffe. Photo supplied

The Music and Memory program has been developed by Heather Roche, a third-year Psychology student at the University of Canberra, with oversight from Kristen Sutcliffe, CSO bassoonist and audiologist, who curates and presents the CSO’s Rediscovering Music program for people who have experienced hearing loss.

“We’re specifically looking at any kind of reduction in aggressive and difficult behaviours in people with dementia,” Sutcliffe tells Limelight. “What’s really interesting is that with dementia, the area of the brain that’s responsible for responses to music is one of the last areas that deteriorates. Therefore familiar songs and melodies can sometimes be quite calming for people with dementia, and it can improve their mood and interaction with other people,...