VISITS MONDAY 18 OCTOBER

Today my study tour got underway with three important visits:

TOUR OF CHRISTIE GARDENS. This morning I met up with Diana Sweatman who gave me a tour of the Christie Gardens complex. This is a large building of 10 floors with 194 apartments mainly for open market condominium retirement living and with a significant number of life lease apartments. The Long Term Care facility offers nursing and residential care for those with higher levels of need. This includes two specialist 12 bed Memory Units (dementia care).

The centre also has a comprehensive Wellness Unit with consulting rooms for on site healthcare. The centre employs its own medical staff including doctors, nursing staff, physiotherapists and other specialists offering a full range of services paid for by residents privately or through healthcare insurance.

The building has a large basement space with garage, auditorium, cinema, hairdresser, activity room, residents resource room, shop, cafe and service areas.

Many aspects of the long term care centre are similar to those found in Somerset Care homes - memory boxes, wide corridors, nursing stations, key pads, art work, patio doors, access to gardens. I particularly liked the personalised place mats on the dining tables in the Memory Unit. These were hand made cards, made by the residents and including their name and photo on a A4 sized card and then put through a laminator. A lovely simple and inexpensive touch.

DODEM KANONSHA - First Nation Elders Lodge.
I spent several hours at the Toronto Native Elders Center in downtown Toronto, participating in a Hand Drum Circle. My host at the Center was its manager Amy Desjarlais. The Hand Drum Circle was a moving and spiritual experience through which ancient stories and themes are conveyed through music, evoking the power of the earth and nature. I joined the circle with seven other regular attendees and we sang songs following the rhythm of the hand drums - the heartbeat. Before doing so we cleansed ourselves by smudging - washing the face and body with smoke from the burning of dried save leaves mixed with tobacco. The singing was rhythmic chanting of sounds to the beat of the drums. The first song was about the Four Directions - North (white), South (red), East (yellow) and West (black). Following this each member of the circle was invited to propose a song or a subject. My choice was to sing about my family who are left behind in England while I am travelling. Others chose a healing song, a butterfly song and a very powerful "game song". Amy's spirit song about how she was created and how, in the spirit world, she chose her earth parents and selected the life she would lead before entering her human form was particularly moving.

I was amazed to learn that hand drum singing was illegal in Canada for many decades until the 1990s and women only became allowed to participate in 1992. The power of the singing is significant and it gives rise to strong emotions. The singing has few recognisable words and is regarded as a form of prayer shaped by vocal intonation. It is used in spiritual ceremonies and also as a social musical art form. The ceremonial versions are considered private and recording of them Is forbidden. The drums themselves are made with animal skin tightened over a circular wooden frame. They are imbued with a religious significance and are prized and precious possessions, loved, worshipped and cherished by their owners

Further information at: www.dodemkanonsha.ca
See also: www.fourdirectionsteachings.com

NB I was offered a strong film recommendation: "Away From Her" (2006) Director - Sarah Polley, starring Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie. Canadian film about the destructive effect dementia can have on loving relationships.

NATIVE CANADIAN CENTER OF TORONTO
In the evening I visited the First Nation cultural centre where I was able to join in a larger Hand Drum Singing Circle. Again a fascinating experience like a prayer meeting set to rhythmic drum beats. Each participant was invited to speak about themselves and what they were looking for from the session. Some were looking for spiritual healing following troubled times. Others were looking for meaning in their lives and were joining as novices a group of longer term attendees for whom regular drumming meetings and practicing the art has become an important element in their lives. In each song the main refrain, or lead chant, has to be sung independently by each participant in turn as a solo introduction to the main chant. The lead passes round the group until each member has taken the lead at least once. This takes a bit of getting used to for the novice but the group were very kind and forgiving of the vocal inadequacy of their British guest.

Hand Drum Circles have a deep sacred meaning for the First Nation Communities. It is now a growing art form with groups and lead singers starting all the time throughout Canada. Women and men tend in the main to practice the art in separated groups but in mixed social and ceremonial gatherings it is common for the men to undertake the drumming and singing while the women dance. The potential of the use of this sacred art form as therapeutic activity for older people is as yet underdeveloped but there was warm recognition that this could be an appropriate application for use in care settings with people with memory loss challenges. The rhythmic drum beating and the ritualistic chanting has a definite therapeutic healing effect and is something that could have particularly beneficial application in dementia care. As my hosts agreed this is something worthy of further research. I am most grateful to them for making me so welcome and for allowing me to participate in their ceremony. Michael Palin would have been proud of me!

Location:Toronto