Summary: <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Ivy is 105 years old and she loves music. She<br> sings along to “old-timers” in the car when she’s traveling around Australia,<br> and listens to “sad” songs before she goes to bed.<br> <br> <br> “I usually have the music playing softly,”<br> she says, “I go to sleep that way.”<br> <br> <br> The truth is, Ivy hasn’t done that for a<br> while. She lives with dementia and has been a resident at a care home in Sydney’s<br> north for the past couple of years. Her carers tell me that Ivy goes to bed<br> pretty early, around 5pm, and she doesn’t have a radio or music player in her<br> room. <br> <br> <br> Instead, Ivy has an iPod loaded with a<br> personalised playlist of songs for her to enjoy. It was given to her as part of<br> Hammondcare’s new music engagement program designed by former music professor,<br> Dr Kirsty Beilharz.<br> <br> <br> So, what’s on her playlist? “I like all the<br> old time songs,” Ivy says, before the conversation suddenly shifts to why she<br> didn’t learn how to play the piano. “My mother tried to make me learn but I was<br> too much of a larrikin,” she says.<br> <br> <br> There are more than 353,000 Australians<br> living with dementia in Australia.<br> <br> <br> As part of Dr Beilharz’s program, Ivy -<br> along with 750 other Hammondcare residents living with dementia - have received<br> iPods with personalised playlists so they can listen to the songs they love and<br> remember. <br> <br> <br> In this episode, we speak with residents, a<br> care worker and Dr Beilharz, about the unique and powerful way music and<br> singing can connect with people living with dementia.<br> <br> <br>
