Our plan to bring joy to S'poreans living with dementia

While no cure exists for dementia, music therapy has been found to aid in the treatment of symptoms and quality of life for persons living with the condition. The power of music is thought to lie in its ability to tap into long-term memory, which is often spared in people with dementia. This has been the key idea behind the creation of our JoyPhone Community Project.

What is JoyPhone

The JoyPhone is a computer electronics and an mp3 player module that transforms a vintage rotary phone into a portable jukebox. You'll hear a dial tone when you pick up the handset. A classic tune from the time of the person with dementia will begin to play as you dial a number.

The Community Project is an initiative that aims to improve the quality of life for seniors with dementia in Singapore. As initiators of the project, we wish to support caregivers and nursing homes by giving them a JoyPhone as part of our campaign, free of charge. The community aspect of our project is that we want to teach and build a community of electronics builders how to construct a JoyPhone. We will also need the support of the public to help us source for rotary telephones that our builders can convert.

The link to music therapy

Through early experiments with JoyPhone concept, it has been shown that music improves mood, reduce anxiety and agitation, and increase social interaction in people with dementia.

When music is used as therapy for people with dementia, it's often referred to as reminiscence therapy. This type of therapy uses music from the person's past to help trigger memories and evoke positive emotions. The music chosen is typically from the person's youth or a time period when they experienced happy memories. For many people with dementia, music is a powerful way to connect with the past and bring back positive emotions.

A study, published in 2015, looked at the effects of music therapy on cognitive function in people with dementia. The study found that music therapy can help improve attention, orientation, and memory. It can also help reduce problems with language and communication.

How JoyPhone will help

We strongly believe that our JoyPhone Community Project will have a positive impact on people with dementia in Singapore

1. The music that we'll put on the JoyPhone will be specifically chosen to evoke positive emotions and memories.

2. A its core, the JoyPhone is a conventional rotary phone. It will be simple for the elderly generation to figure out how to use the phone.

3. For caregivers and nursing homes, we want to make it as simple as possible to install and play music that is tailored to the person living with dementia.

We need your help

We want to enlist everyone in Singapore to help us to make it a true Community Project. Some of the areas we need help with:

• Do you have a rotary phone that you want to donate to the project;

• Are you an electronics enthusiast and can you help us assemble a JoyPhone;

• Do you want to try the JoyPhone as a caregiver and share your experiences;

• Or maybe you can contribute by helping us choose music for our first playlist.

Please get in touch if you want to help us make our JoyPhone Community Project a success. Please visit JoyPhone.org to learn more about our project & the people involved and do leave your contact details if you can help.

Thank you so much! And do leave a comment, I really appreciate the feedback.

Nico Nanninga

Founder, JoyPhone.org

Reference: music therapy (2015). Alzheimer's Association.