Bringing Joy

Musica Music and Wellbeing is a social enterprise with a mission to harmonise healthcare through music

Musica Music and Wellbeing’s main service is focused on providing musical activities within care homes - reminiscence-based music workshops, live music performances, care home choirs and training opportunities for care staff.

The company uses an evidence-based approach, using current arts and healthcare research to inform its services and to work with care homes to embed music into their care provision.

Benefits

Musica was founded by Rosanna Mead in 2010. While volunteering at a local hospital playing her clarinet and singing with older patients, she realised the enormous benefits music could bring for this age group - and especially for people living with dementia.

She instantly felt that this was her calling in life and started providing unique music workshops in care homes across Dorset, where Musica’s head office is still based. It was quickly apparent that this had the potential to be something big and so Musica was born.

Rosanna is an academic at heart and has a masters degree in music psychology. She’s currently finishing a PhD in medical sociology, exploring the role of music within hospital wards for patients with dementia.

Since Musica began, it has always been the company’s passion to use current research to empower care homes to embed music into their care provision for people living with dementia.

The world’s first commission on music and dementia set up by the Utley Foundation (January 2018) showed that music can provide a lifeline for those both with and without dementia by promoting social connection, restoring a sense of self and bringing joy even in the most challenging of times.

Symptoms

Neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia such as agitation, depression, apathy and anxiety are reported to affect around 80 per cent of people with dementia in care homes. Research shows that participating in high quality group music activities can dramatically reduce the symptoms of dementia such as these.

Musica is proud of the fact its services are much more than the usual ‘entertainment’ often seen in care homes and the company’s meaningful music activities can be thought to provide a vital role within healthcare.

In 2012 Musica became a social franchise, which is defined by SEUK as: ‘The use of a commercial franchising approach to replicate and share proven organisational models for greater social impact.’

This has been a game changer for Musica and has enabled it to work with a large number of care homes, both independent and large care groups. In 2017 the company delivered over 1,050 workshops in care homes, reaching over 10,000 older adults and their carers.

Musica is currently looking to expand its reach across the UK and to train more franchisees to deliver the company’s music activities.

The franchise package starts at £3,997 and includes full training, instruments and resources, marketing materials, an online customer relationship management system and one month’s free direct marketing.