Region to see rollout of 'lifeline' music therapy

It is hoped prescribing musical therapy could reduce the need for health and care services

A three-year project to analyse the impact of music on people with dementia could yield "incredible" results, organisers have said.

Musical therapy cafes - where people are guided to sing and play instruments - will start in Greater Manchester's 10 boroughs in October for more than 1,000 dementia patients.

The project has been funded jointly by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, the NHS, and the National Academy for Social Prescribing

It is hoped prescribing musical therapy could reduce the need for health and care services and improve people's quality of life.

The free musical cafes will be prescribed for people with dementia

The sessions will be delivered by the Manchester Camerata orchestra and the Alzheimer's Society, with their impact to be analysed by the NHS and the University of Manchester.

"It could save costs on medication, improve lives, people even say it has saved their lives, they tell us it is a lifeline," said Bob Riley, the chief executive of Manchester Camerata,

The orchestra has been running music cafes for more a decade and has led to "magic" and "joyful" responses from those with dementia, he said.

"It is just incredible to see what music can do in that moment."

Three-hundred "music champions" will be trained to deliver the free music cafes.

Mr Burnham said the support would be "life-changing" for people with dementia and their carers.

It would also generate "groundbreaking research that will influence health and care policy across the country", he said.