Cochrane choir made for singers with dementia or memory loss

Cochrane is home to the Good Vibes Memory Choirs, made up of people living with dementia or memory loss along with their loved ones or caregivers.

Cochrane is home to a choir comprised of singers experiencing dementia or memory loss.

In fact, the Good Vibes Memory Choir was so successful after its first year, it has since doubled in size and split into two choirs.

Run by artistic director Erica Phare-Bergh and executive director Rick Bergh, the Good Vibes Memory Choirs now have 85 members.

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“Mostly, it’s for people who have memory loss, or have a connection with dementia somehow – like maybe they have a loved one who passed away with complications with Alzheimer’s,” said Phare-Bergh.

“It was originally a research project [in Victoria, B.C.] We decided to expand it to six choirs, three in care homes and three in the community. COVID shut that down, but then when we moved back [to Cochrane,] because we missed our grandkids after COVID and we thought it’s really important work and so we thought we would start it here.”

Bergh says sometimes the participants are reluctant to be part of a choir.

“They don’t even want to be there at first, they kind of want to leave,” he said. “And then all of a sudden we sit together, and the community begins to form, and rehearsals begin and it’s just like they become alive and by the end of the time together; they don’t want to leave, it’s just amazing to see the transformation.”

Phare-Bergh says many caregivers notice a change in the patients when they’re singing in the choir.

“The research that we did showed that the cortisol levels go down when we sing together,” she said. “There are positive neurotransmitters that are increased in our brain – things like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin – and so the social aspect of singing is really important for developing new neural pathways.”

“There’s something that happens when we sing together – not sing by ourselves, but sing together."

Bergh says they regularly hear from caregivers or staff at retirement homes that after choir practice, people living with memory loss or dementia are eating better, sleeping better and having better days overall.

He says there’s no science behind the results yet, but he hopes to see that change in the future.

“There should be a socially prescribed healthy intervention for people when you go to the doctor and need something to reduce that cortisol level; maybe it’s not a pill,” said Bergh. “Why don’t you join a choir because we [could] have science behind that, so that’s the long-term vision - to make a healthy lifestyle, sing in a choir.”

The choir is free to join and hosts its next performance, called All Creatures Great & Small, at the Frank Wills Community Hall in Cochrane on Friday, Dec 12, at 6:30 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 13, at 3 p.m.