Music•Glenn Bassett, also known as 'My Mate George' lives in London, England and plays guitar and sings. His job since 2012 has been leading music sessions for people with dementia and their carers. They are energetic groups, and there is always plenty of dancing -- it's like a big party.
He has over 2000 songs in his repertoire and can usually oblige requests in almost any style, from country to soul, pop to reggae, crooners to rock and roll. And if he doesn't know it, he'll go and learn it! So feel free to send your requests ahead of time or in the chat during his Sage Stream sessions.
Glenn created 'Teatime Tunes', a brilliant idea to help engage and foster positive behaviors from those suffering memory loss and dementia: 365 daily 10 minute music videos, now all archived and available to watch on his Youtube channel.
Praise for Glenn from Kathryn in the UK - "I used to take my mum to Glenn’s group in Bushey and they were by far the best we went to and we missed him greatly when he couldn’t do anymore. His sessions were different from the rest, wasn’t such old music but played a variety, played the background music, which I always think helps especially people with dementia as they are likely to recognize the tune more with the music and just always a laugh. My dad came with myself and my mom and he found it a good social ground too. We would love Glenn back so I am glad to see he is getting some recognition and promotion that he deserves."
The components that make Teatime Tunes fun and dementia-friendly include:
Regularity and timing -
With routine clearly very important in dementia care, he set a regular time for videos to be released during the whole of 2021: 3pm each day. In the UK, 3 or 4pm is a popular time for a mid-afternoon snack time: not too soon after lunch, but it’s still relatively light outside, and can provide some stimulation during the day which should aid sleep at night. The videos are also a maximum of ten minutes long. Attention spans can be short in dementia, but also, for carers to engage their loved ones in an activity for an extended period of time can sometimes be very tiring. He wanted the Teatime Tunes to feel like a joyful thing that a carer could look forward to joining in with every day.
Date and song number -
Each day he displays the date, to help orient people in time (the little poster in shot also reminds the viewer that it’s 3pm). He also has a song-number displayed, so that the viewer is aware lots of other songs have already appeared, and that this is a daily routine. This may also encourage people to be curious about the previous songs and perhaps request to go back to old favourites.
Props -
He has a number of props that provide reassuring continuity, but also a bit of variety to encourage the viewer to notice little changes. Each day the mug for his tea changes and he briefly talks about that. The snack changes. There are many small character toys behind him on the sofa – the main ones remain, and the smaller ones change their position each time. And of course, there’s the ever-present boater hat, and the different coloured ‘G’ t-shirts (which is handily a reminder for ‘Glenn’ or ‘George’.)
Food and drink prompts -
Carers often mention how tricky it can be to encourage their loved ones to eat and drink regularly, especially important with some medications. So "G" enjoying a cuppa and a snack is a very deliberate part of the videos, to gently encourage the viewer to do the same.
Familiar singalong songs -
Of course, the main element of each video is the song. The key is to encourage participation rather than simply passive viewing, so he tries to make every song jaunty and foot-tapping, even the slow ones. •Facebook•Instagram•SoundCloud•YouTube•Creator, 'Teatime Tunes': short, daily dementia-friendly music videos
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Creator, 'Teatime Tunes': short, daily dementia-friendly music videos
