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Image shown: Tea
Covid protocols have created physical distance between families who have a loved one in a nursing home or healthcare setting. This has created 12 months of cumulative stress, especially when spouses and partners are separated and unable to physically connect. Global restrictions on travel have added enormous stress to some residents with children living in other countries, adding to already existing accessibility challenges.
Tea, Chats and Tunes is a project partnership between Meath County Council Arts Office and Kids’ Classics, supported by funding from Meath County Council, Creative Ireland, the Arts Council and the Age-Friendly Meath Keep Well Fund and delivered through healthcare partners in County Meath.
Through the support of technology, a virtual zoom room enables residents in nursing homes to connect-in with their loved ones at home or abroad in a meaningful way, regardless of where they are located. Music, conversation, and memories are shared while offering an opportunity for new ones to be made through a specifically designed framework that supports person-centred music engagement.
This project is lead by Meath native, professional cellist Gráinne Hope who is founder of Kids’ Classics, Ireland’s leading non-profit music in healthcare organisation. Kids’ Classics manages and delivers music programmes nationally in partnership with healthcare settings, the National Concert Hall and County Council Arts Offices.
Gráinne’s work has seen her awarded a Clore Cultural Leadership Fellowship (Wellcome Trust award) in 2018/2019 and an Atlantic Fellowship at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) in Trinity College Dublin in September 2020, recently graduating to join the Global Atlantic Fellow Community as Senior Atlantic Fellow.
Tea, Chats and Tunes was developed in response to the need to find new ways of connecting some of the most vulnerable members of our communities isolating in nursing homes with their families at home or abroad through an opportunity to engage in a live cultural experience in a safe way.
This programme is offered to all nursing home residents in County Meath and their families. If you have a family member resident in a County Meath nursing home and would be interested in setting up a virtual music session, contact Kids Classics at info@kidsclassics.ie or on 085 2284153.
