Bigger Hearts Dementia Choir has been preparing for its first public performance in a bid to raise awareness for what they do and to help keep their melodies alive after a funding bid fell through this year.

Aphasia choir The Chatterboxes have joined the chorus after its numbers dwindled throughout the pandemic. Also coming on board for support is Ballarat Grammar's Early Birds, grade prep to three pupils, who are giving up time in their school holidays to sing.

Bigger Hearts Dementia Choir co-founder Kerrie Shiell said there was a sense of "jumping in the deep end" but members just wanted to sing and keep lovely connections with each other and to build connections with the wider community.

"Bigger Hearts, sharing with each other - that's what it's been about. It's people who might be isolated given a way to reconnect with community," she said.

"Now it keeps broadening...we've had a few parents of the Early Birds think it's a wonderful way for their children to connect with older adults when they don't have grandparents who live near."

The choir, while for people who are living with dementia, also includes carers and loved ones.

There are also a few volunteers, most with a background in dementia care, who offer support each week whether this be a chat if someone is upset or a bit of a dance.

Chatterboxes, formerly The Mumbles, is a well-established choir rehabilitation program for Grampians Health Ballarat aphasia clients.

Both choirs were started to boost communication skills and mood of members.

Bigger Hearts choir was formed in May last year when Dr Shiell and her brothers saw a documentary about a dementia choir in Nottingham, England.

They sprang into action to adapt the program in Ballarat for people with dementia and their loved ones.

Dr Shiell has worked with people who have dementia in Ballarat for more than 15 years. She said studies worldwide showed music could improve symptoms of depression in people with dementia.

Her brother Mark Shiell is a professional orchestra conductor who, while his work has taken him back to Melbourne, will return for the concert with a professional violinist.

A Ballarat pianist will accompany the choir while the experienced Geoff Hassell has taken over conducting duties. He also led the Chatterboxes.

The Early Birds will perform two songs of their own before joining for one with the choir.

Dr Shiell said because their rehearsal times did not match up, the concert would be the first time Early Birds and Bigger Hearts choirs would actually sing together.

"It's not about musicality. It's about fun and joy and the experience of coming together," Dr Shiell said.

"We hope the last song the audience will join in, however many want to sing it. This is just something special."

IN OTHER NEWS

The number of Victorians living with dementia is set to double in the next 35 years.

There were more than 3100 people living with dementia in Ballarat, figures from before the pandemic showed.

Dementia most commonly develops in people aged 65-plus and Ballarat has the compounding factor of an above-average aging population. The Ballarat region's median age, including Daylesford, was 42 years, according to the 2021 Australian Census data. This remains clear above the national (38) and state (37) median averages.

Bigger Hearts Dementia Choir's first concert is a York Street Church in Ballarat East on Sunday, from 1.30pm.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or via searching the tryboooking.com website.

The concert will pause for a cuppa interval about half-way through. Dr Shiell said the hope was just to get people attending to see the difference their music could make.

MOST dementia carers were unaware speech pathologists could help when it came to tackling one of the more challenging tests in patience, repetitive questioning, a regional expert has found.

Former secondary school teacher Kate Angikiamo is determined to help break down barriers for people living with dementia and their loved ones in regional Victoria, by delving into issues of access for supports, in particular speech pathology.

Ms Angikiamo, who is based in Wangaratta, is vying to tap into Ballarat's strong dementia-care community for her research with University of Canberra in a bid to help make a difference in awareness.

For more details, follow the QR code in the picture.

"In other countries speech pathologists are called speech and language pathologists because the job supports people from birth to death in more than just speech," Ms Angikiamo said.

"...For dementia, there is really a lot of unknowns. Speech pathologists can help with swallowing and communication with language and assisted verbal technology. With dementia, one of the banes of existence for carers is repetitive questioning but we can problem-solve that with things like language boards.

"We want to help avoid burn-out and keep people living at home as long as we can to lead active, happy lives."

Ms Angikiamo said singing, such as in Ballarat's Biggers Hearts Dementia Choir, was also a great way to develop language for people with dementia who might struggle to hold a conversation but could still hold a tune and know the words to songs.

She was drawn to the research for her masters degree on dementia because her uncle, who lived interstate, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease not long before she started her studies. He quickly became "beyond talking", especially on the phone.

"I started studying speech pathology because I was a burnt-out secondary school teacher. I realised the horse had bolted before year seven for a lot of kids, who really had needed speech pathology before school," Ms Angikiamo said.

"...A lot of people don't know speech pathologists have lots to offer. For people with dementia, if you can get help early in the disease, support for primary care givers in the form of communication partner training can really help."

Ms Angikiamo said a lack of access to speech pathologists in regional Victoria added extra barriers to support for care givers. Her research will help define how much awareness there is on speech pathology supports for people with dementia and, levels of access to speech pathology.

Dementia most commonly develops in people aged 65-plus and Ms Angikiamo said an expected sharp increase in the disease, mostly driven by an aging population, was both concerning and more reason to ensure stronger supports were in place.

Ballarat has an above-average aging population.

For more details and to participate in the study, follow the link here.

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