EP 90 :: Music And Dementia: Sing From The Heart :: Clare Childs
Clare is a professional orchestral flautist, mother of 3-year-old twins, and the caregiver for her mother, Christine, who was diagnosed with vascular dementia at age 67. Christine, now 70, currently resides in a nursing home in Harpenden, UK.
In 2019, after she discovered how her mother and others responded to music, she started a sing-along group, Sing from the Heart. Since going online in 2020 due to Covid they have over 200,000 views of the dozens of sing-a-long videos posted on YouTube and shared through Facebook.
“Helping other people is a way for me to manage how we go through this journey of dealing with my mum and how she's changing as she gets progressively worse,” Clare explains.
“It’s about music tapping into that area of the brain that just sparks and gives them their life back so that they can communicate through song instead of words,” Clare says.
You can find Clare on Facebook and sing along with the Song From the Heart videos on YouTube.
“We have occasional moments where I feel like she's lifted out of the pain she's in by the music and just has those few glimmers, here and there, where she's happy or calmer,” Clare says. “So, I know that it's working. And it can help others too…as it's helped me to deal with it all.
