177: The 'D' Word with Pete Hill & guest Jan Bee Brown177: The 'D' Word with Pete Hill & guest Jan Bee Brown
UK Health Radio Podcast
Pete Hill talks with dementia-inclusive storyteller and shanty singer Jan Bee Brown about sea shanties, community, and creative approaches to dementia support. Their conversation touches on inclusive performance, care home work during Covid, and the challenges of funding and evaluating creative dementia services.
34:40•24 Jul 2026
Sea Shanties, Starfish and Stories: Dementia, Community and Jan Bee Brown
Episode Overview
- Storytelling and sea shanties can create inclusive, low-pressure spaces for people living with dementia to socialise and express themselves.
- Rural communities like Shetland and urban areas such as North Edinburgh both face isolation, making intentional connection crucial.
- Ceilidh-style storytelling focuses on close, relational communication: eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart.
- Feedback from people with dementia can reshape performances, for example by separating music and story to allow more processing time.
- Creative work and social prescribing need fair funding and ethical evaluation, with more focus on the process than on measurable outputs.
“"I think I made a difference to that one."”
How do people find hope in the darkest times? This conversation on The D Word with host Pete Hill and guest Jan Bee Brown shines a light on the role of storytelling, music and community for people living with dementia. Jan, described as a "dementia inclusive storyteller and shanty woman", shares how her journey began on tall ships with the Jubilee Sailing Trust, where sea shanties and tales of the sea first captured her imagination.
Later, living in Shetland and working with Alzheimer Scotland, she realised that shanties could work brilliantly as dementia-inclusive events, leading to the creation of the Shalder Shanty Crew. With their call-and-response structure, "anybody can belt out a sea shanty" without worrying about remembering lyrics or singing "properly".
She talks about the contrast between remote island life and urban settings like North Edinburgh, noting that "one can be more isolated in a city than living on an island" and that connection is crucial wherever you are. Her apprenticeship at the Scottish Storytelling Forum shaped a style rooted in the ceilidh tradition: "eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart" rather than big stage performances.
Jan’s starfish story becomes a central metaphor: when told that she "can't make a difference" because there are too many starfish on the beach, the girl replies, "I think I made a difference to that one." It’s a reminder that small acts of care matter deeply in dementia support.
She also discusses dementia-inclusive performance, Raven’s Tales, and how feedback from people with dementia led her to separate music and story to allow processing time, plus the importance of tea, buns and conversation for genuine social connection. The chat finishes with a lively critique of social prescribing, art therapy, and the ethics of evaluation, hinting at a "movement" forming around creative, respectful dementia care.
If you care about how stories and songs can keep people connected, this is one to sit with and reflect on: where could a simple story make a difference in your life today?
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