A POPULAR religious television show was filmed at a care home.

BBC One’s Songs of Praise visited Guild Care’s Bradbury Wellbeing Centre, in Robin Road, Goring, near Worthing.

Filming took place at the end of March and the episode will air on Sunday at 12.45pm.

The theme of this particular Songs of Praise episode is “Music Makers” and the reason for the visit was to film music therapist Hazel Child with service users at the charity’s day centre which provides respite to carers of people with dementia.

Hazel comes to the Bradbury Wellbeing Centre fortnightly and provides an hour long music therapy session for a group of people with dementia.

She says that the people who come to her classes love to sing and play instruments.

Hazel, who works for the organisation Waves Music Therapy, said: “Recent research has found that music is an important tool to help manage emotional states and symptoms of dementia, helping to retain memory, stimulate responses and possibly delay the onset of the disease.

“Yet despite knowing the effectiveness of music therapy just five per cent of care homes are using it effectively.”

Nicki Freeman, Guild Care’s day services manager, added: “At Guild Care we’re committed to ensuring the people who come to us have a day full of stimulating activities all within a fun and safe environment cared for by highly trained staff.

“We believe music therapy is a great way of interacting with people living with dementia and we can see how people’s faces literally light up when they take part in the sessions.”

Guild Care runs a wide range of respite and short breaks for carers of people living with dementia, including outings in the community for their loved one, as well as, activities based at its day centres.

The Bradbury Wellbeing Centre is the only purpose-built building of its kind in Worthing and is open Monday to Friday and alternate weekends.

Songs of Praise has been a staple on the BBC television schedule since its debut episode in October 1961.

The show has interchanging hosts, with the current line-up boasting names like Aled Jones, Katherine Jenkins, Bill Turnbull and Josie D’Arby.

Songs of Praise has recorded more than 2,000 episodes in its near 60 year run and continues to be a popular feature on the BBC schedules.