Music Mirrors created for My Brain Book

A dementia project that takes music links from YouTube and uses them to illustrate a person's life history has been developed by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and a local music teacher.

The Music Mirrors project enables people in the early stages of dementia to make self-portraits through short descriptions of their life, linked to music that has been important to them.

These can be shared with family members and carers. The aim is to create comforting sounds, to spark memories, and to provide talking points.

The project will form part of ‘My Brain Book’, an internet-based dementia care planning tool that is being created by the South London Health Innovation Network.

This will allow people with dementia and their carers create a personalised care plan and provide them with an interactive resource centre.

Heather Edwards, the music teacher who developed the music record, which is a free service across the trust, said she came up with the idea while caring for her father.

"A Music Mirror consists of a few short sentences – a mini autobiography for a person with dementia – and then lists the music which has been an essential and meaningful part of that person’s life,” she said.

"Though a simple concept, it is something positive that can be done after diagnosis, bringing meaningful contact with a carer or volunteer and building a resource to help preserve an identity, which may become fragile as a result of the condition."

Dr Hugo de Waal, clinical director for Dementia of the South London Health Innovation Network said Music Mirrors will be an “essential and efficient method of establishing contact with someone with dementia.”

"As part of My Brain Book, Music Mirrors will initially be used to help people with dementia across the eight boroughs of South London, where it is estimated around 750 people are diagnosed with dementia per year,” he said.

The My Brain Book project is still in the development phase.