Putting music on for your residents is always well received, but it can be hard to change it up when you have a limited number of vintage CDs.
Dedicated radio stations are a great way to keep things fresh and to find surprising reminiscence gems you hadn’t even considered. There are a range of specialist stations available, from dedicated ones for the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, as well as themed stations for swing and jive music – all available for you to play in your care home for free. They feature music and news broadcasts from these specific eras and run throughout the day. You can find the 1940s station here and the 1950s station here.
The BBC launched their own version of Dementia Radio last year entitled ‘Music Memories’, designed to use music to help people with dementia reconnect with their most powerful memories. Music is sorted into classical and pop songs, then sorted by year, artist or composer, with hundreds of tracks for each entry, as well as separate stations for theme tunes from the past.
You can also enjoy Sound Memories Radio, which is a dementia-friendly station based in west Wales run by and for older people. The station specialises in helping carers, activity coordinators and family members create reminiscence resources by sharing their life stories through a ‘Digital Life Story Channel’ and by collating an ‘Environmental Sound Map’ of the places that presenters have lived all their lives.
