The therapeutic value of music for the elderly is being examined through an initiative organised by the Midland Health Board and Music Network, the ESB-sponsored music development group.
Based on an appreciation of music, the use of music instruments and performances in residential and day-care centres is being put to the test.
For the past month, the sound of music has been ringing around six centres in the health board area, with professional musicians performing live and offering workshops with the aid of a facilitator.
The use of music in the centres was also evaluated during the Music Network 1998/1999 concerts, which were part of the Healthcare Environments Programme and included three centres in the midlands.
The centres taking part in the new programme are Riada House Residential and Day Care Centre, Tullamore, St Vincent's Hospital and Day Care Centre, Mountmellick, St Mary's Hospital and Day Care Centre in Mullingar, Ely House Residential and Day Care Centre, Birr, Ofalia Residential and Day Care Centre, Edenderry, and St Joseph's Hospital and Day Care Centre in Longford.
According to Ms Dympna Bracken, spokeswoman for the programme, the performances are highly interactive and the workshops focus on the participants' experience of music.
The initiative encourages people to be creative with sound and movement, she said.
The programme also aims to train staff to provide musical education in the hope that those who use the centres will continue to learn to play instruments and perform.
Ms Bracken said that in Riada House, St Vincent's, Mountmellick, and St Mary's in Mullingar, where the project began, soprano Toni Walsh, pianist Tony Byrne and facilitator Michelle Murphy were in the middle of the first phase of the programme and had already had great success.
She said clients and staff had embraced the initiative's workshops and performances.
She had been told by Sister Mary Daly, of St Mary's in Mullingar, that the programme had become very popular.
People were eager to participate, particularly through singing, poetry and performing on a choice of percussion instruments.
There had been a similar reaction in the other centres, she said.
A nurse in Riada House, Tullamore, had reported obvious pleasure on the faces of people as they revisited memories of their youth through music.
The programme has been funded by the Midland Health Board, the National Steering Committee of the UN International Year of Older Persons, the Department of Health and Children, and other national and local bodies.