Care UK’s the Burroughs partners with the Eye Music Trust to bring therapeutic experiences to their

Home news

Jul 16, 2015

The Burroughs care home in West Drayton teamed up with performance charity, the Eye Music Trust, which bought therapeutic workshops using colour, light and music to its care homes.

The partnership should enable Eye Music to raise funding from the Arts Council and the Baring Foundation to develop and widen its work which includes workshops for older people living with dementia as well as younger people with special needs.  

The link up came about after the charity ran very successful week-long workshops at Care UK’s Heavers Court, Woodland Hall, Whitefarm Lodge and Charlotte House care homes in London.

The workshops involved the Eye Music team setting up an installation including fabric screens, LED lights, computers and movement sensors. They then ran highly interactive sessions of 40-60 minutes for groups of residents, who use the sensors to control colour and light and to play music. The culmination of the week’s work is a concert, put on by the session participants for other residents, as well as family and friends.  

Feedback from Care UK colleagues involved in the workshops has been extremely positive. Josephine Thomas, home manager at the Burroughs said “Our residents really enjoyed the whole experience of making music within a group, with the added visible elements just making it even more interesting.”

Commenting on Care UK’s continuing partnership with Eye Music, Andrew Knight, managing director of Care UK Residential Care Services says, “At Care UK we believe passionately in the positive therapeutic role that the Arts can play in the lives of older people who are living with dementia. We’re therefore very pleased to be able to support the Eye Music Trust in its exciting work and look forward to hearing plenty of positive stories from the forthcoming workshops in our care homes.”

For more information about the Burroughs, please visit www.careuk.com/the-burroughs or call 0333 4343 077.