Pittwater Life July 2019 Issue

Health & Wellbeing
Health & Wellbeing
Up for a
visitor?
If you or anyone you know
is feeling lonely and doesn’t
have regular contact with family
and friends, the Community
Visitors Scheme (CVS) can
offer an opportunity for social
support and companionship.
CVS provides friendship and
companionship by matching
aged care recipients with volunteer
visitors.
CCNB – a not-for-profit
community-based organisation
– coordinates the program on
the Northern Beaches. They will
take into account your interests
and background when finding a
suitable visitor for you.
CCNB provides impartial
information and advice to support
people to access a range of
health and community services.
More info 1300 002 262 or
email ccnb@ccnb.com.au
Diabetes
awareness
Every day almost 300 Australians
are diagnosed with diabetes
but for many the diagnosis
is being made too late, putting
them at risk, according to
Diabetes NSW and ACT.
The organisation is urging
people to learn the signs and
symptoms of type 1 and type 2
diabetes. Each year 640 children
and adults are admitted to hospital
because the early symptoms
of type 1diabetes – severe
fatigue, thirst and weight loss
– are not recognised. More than
half of these hospital admissions
are children and teens.
On top of this there are
almost half a million who are
living with type 2 diabetes but
don’t know it. That’s because
type 2 diabetes can be “silent”
and occur without any obvious
symptoms. When type 2 diabetes
goes undiagnosed there
is the danger of complications
like vision loss and blindness,
kidney failure, nerve damage
and heart disease occurring.
People over 40 are encouraged
to do a quick online assessment
to ascertain their risk
of diabetes and if concerned
to speak to their GP. More info
diabetesnsw.com.au – LO
Ros is keeping
things ‘Upbeat’
In 2015, Pittwater Life featured an article on
Ros Saunders’s newly formed Upbeat Choir
in Avalon, which she started to help people
whose voices have been affected due to
strokes, or other disorders.
She had then been asked to participate in a
research project with RSL Lifecare in Narrabeen
on the effects of singing on the communication
development of stroke victims over a 12-week
period. Participants in the choir were found to
have significant improvement in engagement,
better social interaction, and general wellbeing.
In fact, the choir proved such a success that it is
now a regular weekly event.
Ros was a piano teacher until a close friend
of hers was diagnosed with Aphasia (loss of
speech and memory). Wanting to help him she
contacted Bernadatte Matthias, who was doing
a PhD at Newcastle Conservatorium of Music
on the effect of choir-singing on people with
speech problems. Ros learnt from her and her
choir, before taking singing and conducting
lessons and embarking on her new vocation.
In RSL Lifecare’s Peter Cosgrove House, Ros
Saunders conducts the group through their
first song of the morning, I Still Call Australia
Home, with Jill Parker accompanying on the
piano, and Recreation Activities Officer, Erica
Wallace, not only singing beautifully, but also
encouraging the participants to join in. Over
half of them are in wheelchairs and their
voices are quiet and hesitant initially, but Ros
insists on volume.
There are two enthusiastic renditions of
Ob La Di Ob La Da, and a man sitting a little
apart from the group, not only bellows out the
words, but also keeps perfect time with a tambourine.
Later, Ros tells me, he can’t speak.
“I wouldn’t miss this every week, wherever
there’s singing there’s always joy,” says wheelchair
bound, 98-year-old Ita Cronan.
Annie Noddings, in her 80s, says: “I find it
invigorating. You’ve got to learn the music
and the words, and with a group of us, it feels
good. It helps the memory too.”
Ros Saunders now runs three Upbeat Choirs
– this one, her original Upbeat Choir at Avalon,
and a community choir in Bayview.
Bronwyn Coe joined the Avalon Upbeat
Choir with her husband, who’s her carer, three
years ago. Her third nerve palsy stroke in 2013
took away her capacity to express herself, but
she loved singing, and this was an opportunity
to sing again.
“It’s not only improved my lost speech and
pronunciation, but also helped build my selfconfidence,”
she explains.
Ros Saunders is now expanding the Avalon
Choir to include people suffering with dementia.
Since 2003 in the UK, over 200 Singing for
the Brain Choirs have formed across the country,
and scientific research is proving the benefits
of group singing for dementia sufferers.
The finale at RSL Lifecare is Sing, sing a
song. Thai, Mr Too, appears from the kitchen
to add volume to the men, carer Sabrina
Cohnen joins in, and as the sound of 20 voices
fill the room, there can be no doubt as to the
power of singing.
“Everyone should be in a choir,” says Ros.
– Ros Burton
*For more information about the Upbeat
Choir contact Ros Saunders on 0478 438 684.
48 JULY 2019
The Local Voice Since 1991