The Smiling Sessions help bring joy to residents in Folkestone care homes
Categories:
Arts and Culture | Health and Well Being
Shapeshifter Productions is combatting loneliness and bringing joy to residents of six care homes in Folkestone.
The Smiling Sessions are a participatory singing activity aimed at bringing music and social interaction to older people living in sheltered housing and care homes. Professional singers and musicians perform music from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s and a CD and large print songbook is also given to the care home for residents to listen to after.
As well as bringing joy from music, one of the core roles of The Smiling Sessions is to combat isolation and loneliness. Although care homes and sheltered housing do have communal areas, residents often don’t use it and because of this there is a sense of loneliness and isolation even in these shared accommodation spaces.
Charity founder, Alison Jones, said: “You would be surprised how lonely it can be for people living in sheltered housing or care homes. Whilst there is a communal area, we know these are not often used by residents who often keep themselves to themselves in their rooms. It isn’t for the want of trying on the manager’s part, often it is related to confidence. We hope these Smiling Sessions bring people into the communal space and give them the confidence to continue using it after we have left. They have the CD and song book, and we hope these can help the managers to generate ongoing activity.”
A grant of £5000 was awarded to the Shapeshifter Productions charity by RDHCT meaning that they can deliver two Smiling Sessions per care home during July. The charity is also trying to raise additional money so it can deliver 24 sessions in total to six care homes, as well as a Christmas party for each one.
Alison says: “We rely entirely on fundraising, either through applications to specific organisations like RDHCT or the Arts Council, or via public donations on our website. We are exceptionally grateful to RDHCT for its support and hope to be able to deliver more sessions across Folkestone in the future.”