Silent disco proves a hit with care home residents

A modern dance craze is proving a big hit with elderly people at care homes across the South West.

Weekly ‘silent disco’ sessions are being delivered by community based fitness group SweetResultsFitness at care home and day care centres in North Somerset, Bristol and Gloucestershire.

Mark Sweeting, of SweetResultFitness, said: “The engagement is just amazing once you’ve put the music on. People start to tap their feet, move their hands and just generally get involved and have some fun. It’s proving to be particularly beneficial to people living with dementia.”

Story continues below

Advertisement

The group sessions, which are led by an activities facilitator, involve playing music to people through Bluetooth headphones.

“Agitation and frustration are common among those with dementia but after a session at the silent disco, patients feel far more settled and behavioural issues are reduced for the rest of the day,” Mark said.

Clevedon day centre in North Somerset is among the services to have trialled the programme.

Carer Liz Cutler said: “I thought today went really well. What was nice to see is that everybody was involved. There was one lady called Joyce who was quite sad when she came in today. She just joined in and she was happy singing along and it realty cheered her up.”

Tony Billinghust, activities co-ordinator for Brunel Care, added: “I have been very impressed. I had my reservations when I heard about silent disco but I think almost without exception it’s gone superbly well with all our clients and we’d certainly welcome it again. It’s brilliant.”

To see the sessions in action, visit: https://youtu.be/VsWJVy61COY