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Music in Healthcare Settings Training

It’s the final day of our 5-day music in healthcare training today, and we’ve had a great time exploring the skills and competencies required to deliver this work alongside a fabulous group of trainees. We’ve spent time in the training room exploring, alongside many other things, repertoire, improvisation and ethical principles behind this practice. We’ve also spent a couple of afternoons at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, playing music for and with patients, visitors and staff on surgical and medical wards, in the neonatal unit and in A&E. Final day today bringing all our learning and experiences together. Many thanks to our trainees for embarking on this journey with enquiring minds, a spirit of adventure and enthusiasm, and a real passion for this practice.

Connections – first day at Leicester Royal Infirmary Children’s Hospital

Our 18 month residency at Leicester Royal Infirmary Children’s Hospital began on 11th September, and what a fabulous day it was! After having a tour of the wards and outpatients areas of this really busy hospital, we began our work on one of the wards accompanied by one of the play specialists. Some lovely interactions with children and babies, all of whom were finding the music engaging in ways which suited their individual situations. Play staff had been struggling to engage one particular patient in any activities, however he immediately found the music-making engaging and his mood brightened significantly. Music became a means of communication with him, and one which staff were then able to use.

During the afternoon session we were asked to attend a treatment room where a doctor had previously tried to take bloods from a young girl accompanied by her mother and play staff. Despite trying various distractions, the child had previously become too distressed and agitated for them to be able to take bloods, and it had taken a long time for the child to calm down after the attempt. We were asked to help. We were already playing music as the child and her mother entered the treatment room, the doctor and nurses all ready to take bloods. The girl sat on her mother’s knee, and though she was still a little agitated and upset by the procedure, it was completed quickly and succesfully this time around. As the child had become agitated, we reflected this in our music, recognising the child’s distress and being ‘with her’ through the music. As the procedure finished, we gradually calmed the music and she quickly calmed with us until we gradually resolved the music to a gentle rendition of Zamina (aka Waka Waka), a popular song across Africa. The girl’s mother knew the song, and joined in with us, singing gently to her daughter as her previously restraining arms transformed to ones for cuddling and comforting. We all left the room in a calm and peaceful state (if a little emotional at the beauty of what we had all just witnessed), and crucially with mother and daughter reconnected through music.

Shadowing OPUS musicians in hospital

I spent two consecutive Fridays shadowing the Musicians from OPUS on the children’s wards at the Royal Derby Hospital. On the first Friday the instruments that the musicians performed with were the guitar, a bodhran drum, ukelele and the melodeon. The second Friday the melodeon was replaced by violin. The musicians would travel from ward to ward performing a mixture of songs, such as “sunshine in my heart” and “wind the bobbin up”, as well as an array of instrumental pieces.

We also brought a trolley filled with various percussion and melodic instruments, these instruments were dispatched to the children whenever a musical connection was established. The musicians also had a designated play area on one of the wards where these instruments were laid out and the children were able to explore and express themselves whilst playing with the instruments.

Whilst observing the musicians in these various settings I was able to witness how the personalities of the children impacted on the music and vice versa. For example: when they were working in the designated play area, one particular child cautiously started playing with the instruments, warily experimenting with the volume and sound of the instrument. As the child interacted with the instruments they seem to be testing the musician’s reactions. This opened a gateway of communication for the musicians, allowing them to instil confidence in the child’s expression with the instrument. The musicians achieved this by mimicking back to the child what they played on the instrument. It was interesting to observe how some children became excited and others became more thoughtful in their musical expression after this communication had taken place.

Another interesting observation I made whilst shadowing the musicians as they travelled around the wards was, how the songs and the instrumental pieces produced different effects. The instrumental pieces seemed to create a deeper connection with the children and their families. On many an occasion emotions were unveiled by the instrumental pieces. Whilst the songs seemed to act as more of an interlude, almost having an element of play attached to them.

As the musicians went from areas of play to, areas where children were suffering with serve illnesses, I was able to witness how the musicians musically sensed the environment. They seemed to know whether a song or an instrumental piece was required in order to connect with the children or individual child. This displayed a deep sensitivity to the children’s physical and emotional situation. It was a very powerful and positive experience that has left me with many new questions and profound memories.

Sarah Steenson, July 2012

New music in health residencies

As you’ve probably noticed from our lack of blogs recently, OPUS is currently on a summer break. While we’ve not been in the hospitals so much over the past month, much has been going on behind the scenes to finalise arrangements for our new residencies beginning very soon. Thanks to funding and support from Youth Music, Nottinghamshire County Council and Leicester City Council, we are delighted to announce new long-term residencies in children’s wards at three new hospitals beginning in September. These will take place at Leicester Royal Infirmary, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham and Kings Mill Hospital in Mansfield, with OPUS musicians visiting the hospitals on a weekly or fortnightly basis. This is planned to continue until at least March 2014, though we hope to sustain these residencies beyond this date. We are extremely grateful for the support of our partner hospitals and our funding partners in making these new residencies possible. OPUS has busy and exciting times ahead, with existing residencies continuing at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals alongside training programmes for musicians and healthcare staff. We’re all really looking forward to it!

Smiles, laughter, singing and dancing…

Another lovely session at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals today, playing music in two wards with patients, visitors and staff. This is a relatively new space for us to work in, with mostly small bays of 6 beds in each along a very long corridor. We play before and during visiting time, and get the sense that the visitors as well as patients are gaining a great deal of enjoyment and wellbeing from the music-making. Staff commented today that the atmosphere is much calmer and that everyone seems to be smiling when we’re around. Staff were waltzing in the corridors, dancing as they got on with their duties. The ward sister commented that they would have us there every day if they could. Patients were singing along with our music, with some teaching us some new songs including ‘Delaney’s Donkey’ and ‘Don’t Laugh at Me’. Some were ‘dancing’ in their chairs and beds much to the enjoyment of other patients and staff. All in all, much laughter, culture and humanity was present throughout the session – and I think we left a taste of it behind.

Music in Healthcare Settings Training, Derby: 25th-31st October 2012

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 28TH SEPTEMBER 2012

OPUS Music CIC is currently engaged in a residency at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital. This residency has been in place since December 2010, with OPUS musicians visiting the hospital on a regular basis to make music for and with patients, visitors and staff.

From September 2012, OPUS will also deliver new residencies within children’s wards at Leicester Royal Infirmary, Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham and Kings Mill Hospital in Sutton in Ashfield.

These residencies are supported by funding from Youth Music, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, Nottinghamshire County Council and Leicester City Council with additional support from all partner hospitals, Derbyshire Music Education Hub, soundLINCS and Natal percussion.

As part of this programme of activity, OPUS is offering training for musicians who already work in, or have an interest in working in healthcare settings. Whilst this training will focus primarily on working with hospitalised children and young people, the theoretical background and practice will also be of benefit to those who wish to work with other age groups.

Following the training, there may be opportunities to join OPUS musicians in delivering musical interventions in healthcare settings as part of these residencies or in other programmes of work. We cannot however currently offer any paid work beyond this training.

Training takes place on 25th, 26th, 29th, 30th and 31st October 2012 in Derby, UK. This training programme is subsidised through project funding and as such we require payment of only £75 total for the 5 days of training (payable on acceptance onto the course).

‘I came away from the course with a desire to start doing this work in my own area – it was some of the most fulfilling music work I have done.’
‘I have found understanding in an area that seemed so out of reach before. I have broadened my horizons and developed my passion for this area further.’

‘Really valuable training. The best I’ve done with youth music.’
‘Thank you very much for a brilliant course!!’

Music in Healthcare Training opportunity Artists Brief (pdf)
Music in Healthcare Training application form (pdf)
Music in Healthcare Training application form
(word)

Contact: training@opusmusic.org

Derbyshire Children’s Hospital residency – feedback

Some recent feedback and comments from our residency at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital.

First a card sent to the hospital by parents…

‘Thank you so much for the fantastic care and support you gave us whilst —— was on the ward. She had some lovely moments with the doctors, nurses and musicians! We cannot thank you enough.’

Lovely to be seen as part of the ‘team’ alongside the doctors and nurses.

More feedback from a parent this week…

‘Absolutely fantastic! Cheered our daughter up no end – better than medicine! Thankyou very much – keep up the good work! :-)’

We certainly will.

The eyes have it…

Derbyshire Children’s Hospital – 15 June 2012. When we’re working as musicians in the hospital, eye contact is critical to us, not only between ourselves as musicians, but also with patients, visitors and staff. A glance from a patient can invite us into their space, give us an indication of their comfort with our presence and give us a clue as to ‘how we are doing’. We often find ourselves using sympathetic eyes – matching a patient’s contact with our own, and negotiating a closer collaboration through eye ‘communication’. Sometimes we can encourage participation or simply smile with our eyes. So much is communicated in this way, and we often reflect upon how our training and experience allows us to use eye contact as a valuable tool in our practice.

Yesterday at the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital we were confronted by the best eye ‘communicator’ we have perhaps ever encountered in the form of a very young baby – only a few weeks old. He had just woken up, and nursing staff had come to find us to ask us to play for him. He was brought out of his room by his parents, carried by his father to meet the three of us (Sarah, Richard and myself). He was at first somewhat agitated, however as we began to play, the three of us lined up playing over each other’s shoulders so as not to crowd the scene, the baby fixed his gaze, as so often happens, upon Sarah’s viola. He became suddenly very calm and purposeful with his wide-eyed gaze, and the whole environment became very calm as doctors and nursing staff looked on. After a minute or so, the baby purposefully moved his gaze to Richard’s bodhran, insisting that Richard come closer to play. Again, after a short time I was also ‘invited in’ by the baby as his stare moved first to my right hand on the guitar, and then to my left hand. Throughout this time baby, mother, father and the medical team were all very calm and peaceful as we all enjoyed the musical moment together. Finally, the baby moved his gaze upwards towards his father’s eyes, as clear a sign as ever that it was time for us to go, and that it was time for the baby to be with his father. We moved slowly away, leaving a peaceful scene behind with an incredibly connected father and baby.

Music had brought people together in a unique way within this scene, and had allowed the baby an opportunity to orchestrate his own environment which was respected and followed by everyone. All through the eyes………

Collaborative music-making

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. A session in the neuro and spinal rehabiliation wards today which saw a mix of playing for and with patients at the bedside and in a day room setting, along with an impromtu performance for staff. It’s always interesting when staff make requests for a particular style, mood or tempo of music, and reminds us that we are there for the benefit of staff as well as patients. Sometimes it’s nice to make music just with the staff but we have to be careful to make sure we aren’t adversely impacting upon the patient’s space and time for music. Today we had time, and space, and it was lovely to give something to the staff for a short time. The session in the day room included a younger patient who we have now seen many times. He has limited movement and vocal control, but often moves his legs and feet along to the music. Staff have informed us that before his trauma and resulting disability he was an active musician. Today, with the support of therapists at the hospital, he was able to play various percussion instruments along with us using his knees. His musical abilities were instantly recognisable, and led us into a performance which he ‘conducted’, sensitively and musically indicating tempo and dynamics through his own movements and sounds. The enjoyment of collaborative, high quality music-making was great to see in everyone involved.

Youth Music Grant supporting Music in Health Programme

OPUS is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a grant of £113,080 from Youth Music to support the development of its music in health programme. This grant ensures that OPUS will be able to continue its residency at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital for a further two years from May 2012, along with new 18 month residencies in children’s wards at Leicester Royal Infirmary, Queens Medical Centre Nottingham and Kings Mill Hospital in Sutton in Ashfield from September 2012. OPUS musicians will be visiting the hospitals on a weekly basis, making music with young patients, their visitors and hospital staff on wards, in waiting areas and at the bedside. Alongside this, OPUS will be delivering training for healthcare staff, enabling them to work alongside OPUS musicians, and to continue practice outside of OPUS’ visits. OPUS will also be delivering 5-day training courses for musicians wishing to work in healthcare settings. Courses will take place in October 2012, and again in April and October 2013. Finally, OPUS is already working hard through this grant funding to build a strong evidence base of the impacts upon health and wellbeing, sharing research and practice and working with numerous partners to explore the long-term sustainability of this practice. OPUS plans to launch a music and health website later in the year, and to host a national music and health seminar in 2013. Watch this space …………..! We are incredibly grateful to Youth Music, along with our partner hospitals and other funders and supporters for making this programme of work possible.

Sheffield Hospital Residency

Lovely session today at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield where Oli Matthews and myself (Nick Cutts) were playing music on two wards, for and with patients, visitors and staff. OPUS has been visiting the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals now most weeks since the beginning of 2011, but every visit brings new surprises, new opportunities and new challenges. Today’s highlights include staff dancing up and down the corridors and bays, engaging with patients and visitors on a cultural, human level. One of the nurses turned to us and said she was singing along even though she didn’t know the words…… it was an instrumental piece, but the enjoyment and opportunity for cultural engagement it offered enticed her to sing along using her own words. Fabulous. We were directed towards an elderly lady in a single room who had ‘been crying all morning’ who clapped and gave us a toothless grin as we entered the room playing a gentle melody. She insisted (without words) on a more upbeat melody, and we duly obliged. She also sang along with great glee to an Elvis song for which none of us knew ALL the words, but that didn’t matter at all, and gave us a sparkling rendition of ‘Summertime’ for which we provided accompaniment with soprano sax and guitar. Another elderly patient became conductor, waving his arms in the air, and taking great delight when ‘his band’ followed his lead. At the end of the session, staff were heard discussing their musical lives and musical ambitions (some newly formed) with each other and with patients. A real sense of culture brought into the space, and left with all the people with whom we came into contact. For us, an enjoyable, uplifting and stimulating session to remember.

Derbyshire Children’s Hospital

Our residency at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital began again yesterday, and what a fantastic day of music-making with children, families and healthcare staff it was! It’s fabulous to be back at the hospital where we are made to feel so welcome and really supported in making a big difference to the lives of those we meet. It was a real priviledge to spend some time on the wonderful neonatal intensive care ward yesterday, playing music for and with babies and their families. Staff and families commented on the positive change of atmosphere within the ward, and the feeling of calm and relaxation which ensued. We saw some lovely reactions from the tiniest of babies and plan to make regular visits to neonatal as part of our weekly sessions.

We are extremely grateful to our funders, Youth Music and The Derby Hositals Charitable Trust for supporting this residency which will continue until at least March 2014, with 3 OPUS musicians visiting the hospital on a weekly basis.

Music and Health Seminar

OPUS Director and Musician Nick Cutts is to present at a 2-day seminar on Music and Health on 10 and 11 May 2012 at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester.

RNCM Music for Health is pleased to invite people working in the cultural and health sectors to attend a FREE 2-day seminar about music in healthcare.

The seminar will

  • present the experience and learning from the EC funded ‘Music in Healthcare Settings: Training Trainers project’ (Leonardo Transfer of Innovation) at a local, national and European level;
  • highlight the importance of working in partnerships across the cultural and health sectors;
  • compare and discuss policy frameworks in the UK and France;
  • present case studies of musical interactions in healthcare settings and outline the training offered by RNCM, including the Medical Notes project funded by Youth Music;
  • present evaluation and research findings from the RNCM Music for Health programme.

A flyer and booking form for the seminar are here:
(attendance at just one day is acceptable)
RNCM Music in Healthcare Settings Seminar flyer
RNCM Music in Healthcare Settings booking form

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals

OPUS’ residency at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is continuing, with musicians working regularly on spinal/neurological injury, general medical and rehabilitation wards. This work takes various forms, mostly seeing musicians playing at the bedside in 1-1 and small group situations. Yesterday saw 2 musicians working with a group of elderly patients in a day room, with everyone playing instruments, singing and ‘dancing’ together. All agreed it was great exercise, thoroughly enjoyable and most of all a humanising experience, giving all patients an opportunity to express interests, curiosity and individuality! With recent press around the need to humanise care for the elderly, we feel like we’re on the right track.

OPUS Music Community Interest Company

At OPUS’ AGM on 14th January 2012, OPUS became OPUS Music Community Interest Company. This development supports OPUS’ aims of continuing to deliver high quality music-making opportunities for the benefit of the East Midlands community and beyond. OPUS delivers this aim with the support of a highly skilled and dedicated board of directors. OPUS is grateful for the support of accountants Poulter Blackwell Limited in incorporating OPUS as a CIC

Music in Healthcare Settings Training

OPUS’ 4 day training programme (Feb/March 2012) for musicians wishing to work in healthcare settings is now FULL. Thanks for the huge interest in this programme. We hope to be able to run more training programes such as this in the future. Thanks to MusicLeader Yorkshire, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals for their support of this training programme.

The end of a residency… for now

Today has been the last day in the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital for our current residency. For the past year, four musicians have been visiting wards and outpatients areas at the hospital most Fridays to make music for and with patients, visitors and staff. This has been a hugely rewarding and incredibly musical experience for everyone, and we are extremely sad that the current residency has come to a close. We were joined at one point today by the stars of Derby’s pantomime (Dick Whittington) who were visiting the hospital. At one point we had a dame, a fairy godmother and Mr Whittington himself all joining in and enjoying the music-making. Fabulous! We also played for a very young patient who had just had grommets fitted ….

Thankyou for playing music to ‘P’ today, it was an absoliute delight. The music settled her, and it is the first thing she has heard properly since she was born. We couldn’t have asked for anything more soothing and well played to help with our daughter’s recovery in the first few hours after her operation. Many thanks.

We hope to be back in the hospital from April 2012, funding permitting, to carry on this amazing work.

Many thanks to Youth Music, Derby City Council, MusicLeader and Derbyshire Children’s Hospital for your support of this amazing project.

Story, Rhythm and Rhyme Evaluation Report

Derbyshire County Council Logo OPUS musicians have been involved in a year-long project, supporting the development of music and story-making for early years children and their families in library settings across Derbyshire. The project was hugely successful, with many libraries continuing to deliver practice beyond the project. The project was managed and supported by Derbyshire County Council with funding from Youth Music. The full evalution report has now been published. Story Rhythm and Rhyme Evaluation Report.

OPUS musicians training with Musique & Santé

OPUS musicians are all highly trained for music and health practice by internationally renowned leaders in this field, Musique & Santé. Nick Cutts has previously trained alongside a European team of musicians in Manchester, Paris, Krakow and Dublin under the guidance of Musique & Sante trainers. In December 2010, Marianne Clarac, a trainer and musician from Musique & Santé visited Derby for a week to deliver training to all OPUS musicians along with others from the region. Nick is now training again in Manchester and Paris with Musique & Santé as part of a European ‘Train the Trainer’ programme. Nick and OPUS colleagues are currently delivering training to musicians and healthcare staff from across the UK using approaches developed by Musique & Santé over many years.
Musique & Sante

A December treat!

‘Kissing Tree Lane’ is an OPUS Ensemble arrangement/composition from 2009. The first part of the tune is an arrangement of a tune entitled Kissing Tree Lane by Rob Harbron, while the second part entitled Apple Tree Games is an OPUS composition. OPUS Ensemble are Nick Cutts, Richard Kensington, Sarah Matthews and Laura Zobel. Click on the player on the right hand sde to listen. Enjoy!