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The Good Sunset Project
Between June 2004 and April 2005 we were both involved in a developmental project for the Hammond Care Group based in Sydney, Australia looking at end of life issues for people with advanced dementia.
The most innovative part of this was a pilot project we set up called The Getting Through Initiative. The method we used was based on a communication approach developed for use with people in coma (Mindell, 1999) in the US.
This involved John spending time on a one-to-one basis with four individuals with advanced dementia. The approach emphasises the importance of paying close attention to the way the individual is breathing, and also attempting to match one's own breathing pattern to the the other person's. It also uses touch (at its most basic, with gentle pressure in time with the person's breathing), eye contact, voice and music to connect with the person. The emphases on breathing, and touch linked to this, were new to both of us, and we both felt this is a profoundly important area to explore further.
Although it was a very small-scale initiative, we got some very encouraging and fascinating results which surprised many who were involved in the Project.
Part of the work involved making high quality sound recordings with the help of sound artist Stephen Philip. He produced a 'soundscape' which represents an imaginative attempt to enter the world of one of the participants. We hope that this will soon be available as a 'podcast'. Watch this space!
This Initiative is being continued in Australia, by Kirstin Robertson-Gillam, who, as well as working for the Hammond Care Group, is a very experienced music therapist. We keep in touch with Kirstin regularly.
We are keen to follow our work in Australia up with a similar project the in UK. We are in the process of developing a proposal for this and would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in a potential collaboration.
You can find out more about this work in the Journal of Dementia Care where we have written a series of articles (Nov/Dec 2005, Jan/Feb 2006, March/April 2006), and a report of the Project overall is now available on DSDC in Sydney
Please contact us directly if you would like any other information.
Reference
Mindell A (1999) Coma Work, A Healing Journey: A Guide for Family, Friends and Helpers Portland, OR: Lao Tse Press
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