PORT TOWNSEND — A Port Townsend musician is developing a workbook for using music to help those in good health stay that way as well as to treat patients with dementia.
As part of the nonprofit Songwriting Works, Judith-Kate Friedman has visited local care centers for several years, teaching residents how to enjoy and create music.
She is now extending the reach of her brand of music therapy to include caregivers, who can be as inspired by the music as the patients themselves.
“A lot of people start with the premise that they are not musical,” she said.
“Music then becomes something that people consume, when it is actually something that everyone can create.”
Along with the help of the community — and a $15,000 grant from Washington Health Foundation’s Rural Health Initiative — Songwriting Works is producing an activity book that can be used by families, civic groups and care centers to bring out the innate music creator in everyone.
The first Music for Wellness meeting took place Wednesday afternoon at the Northwind Arts Center, drawing five volunteers.
The focus group was the first step in the book’s development. Several meetings and workshops will occur over the next few months.
Individual activities will be discussed and developed and then taken out for a “test drive” with elderly friends or relatives.
Those activities that work will be included in the book, while others will be revised or discarded.
Friedman doesn’t know how many activities will be included, but several members of Wednesday’s focus group thought 30 would be a good number.
At the end of the summer, the group will consider the design and publication — which will depend on securing additional funding. The grant expires in October.
Aside from content, the group seeks input on design, execution and whether a CD or DVD should be included.
The grant is also location-specific. The finished product is designed for use on the North Olympic Peninsula and other rural areas, even though many of the activities will be universal.
“At the very least, we will know that these activities will work here in outlying rural areas, although there is the sense they will work in all kinds of places,” Friedman said.
“The inverse would not be true: An activities book based on what you could do in a big city wouldn’t translate to Jefferson County.”
Friedman would like to see the book published in 2012.
Songwriting workshops and focus groups are continuing, with the next workshop at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 21, at the Boiler Room, 711 Water St. It will last until about 9 p.m.
The next Port Townsend focus group is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at the Northwind Arts Center, 2409 Jefferson St.
For more information, visit www.songwritingworks.com or phone 360-385-1160.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
