Search
Close this search box.

Music and Health

Tuesday 25th Sept at Leicester Children’s Hospital

All three Opus musicians were present in Leicester Hospital for this morning – we had a very positive training session for an hour with staff, who engaged and came up with brilliant ideas and went forth to find many great resources we could all use in our musical play work together.

The latter part of the morning was spent in Ward 11. We played for patients recovering from operations, and then moved through to the day treatment waiting area.

We were then specifically asked by staff to go and play for one young lady who was a teenager, with autistic tendancies, waiting in another area because that area was too busy for her to be comfortable. We entered her room gently playing a positive major tune on fiddle, guitar and bodhran. She seemed to calm and engaged with us easily and quickly. She smiled and began moving gently with the music. I stopped playing the tune and started humming the melody whilst I found her a hand-held drum so she could join in with us. She seemed delighted with this and displyed a broad smile. She used her voice also singing along with us.

We played together for about 3 or 4 minutes and then we all seemed to come to a natural finish. She appeared pleased and calm, and the specialist was ready to see her, so we made our exit.

Later that day, her Mum posted comments to indicate how delighted she and her daughter had been with the music, and how much it had relaxed both of them and set the tone for the rest of their day there.

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.

Playing with spider man

In Kings Mill hospital last Friday we were invited to play in a single bed room for a young boy who was connected to a lot of monitoring equipment and had an oxygen mask on. We played a song for him and his reaction was fairly muted but he did say that he liked it. We took our time and spoke a bit to his Dad who said that he himself was a song writer. We played some improvised music and offered the boy a shaker to see if he would like to join in. He declined it and just looked on. He was making his spider man doll move about a bit to the music and we picked up on this by changing the way that we were playing depending on how he moved the doll. Once he realised that spider man was conducting the band he couldn’t get enough of it. He had a great time determining the pace and duration of the music with his doll and he laughed and smiled as he did so. His Dad said we’d done well to get a smile out of him.

Before we left the room the boy’s dad asked if he could share some words he had written about his son being in hospital and we listened as he did so. He’d written a really moving rap about his love for his son and family. At the end he said ‘Thanks for listening to that… It’s quite hard to get people to listen’.

Music in hospitals gives people the time and space to reveal and express their emotions.

Whistle while you work!

Last Friday was my first visit to Kings Mill Hospital in Sutton in Ashfield. While being guided round the wards for the first time by a member of the play team, Nick and I were invited to play for a young girl who was profoundly disabled and who had very restricted means communication. We played a song for her and her parents seemed very pleased to have us there. After we had played, they mentioned that the girl responded very well to whistling. This was only the second time that Nick and I had worked as a duo and we had discussed a variety of different ways of doing this without Sarah playing the lead melody. Whistling had not been on the list but we took up the gauntlet and set to whistling a version of ‘Maid and the Palmer’. The girl responded with a show of great pleasure, the parents were pleased and I was reminded of the importance of maintaining a versatile and light hearted approach to music making in hospital!

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!

Friday 20th July

We began our morning’s work in the Sunflower Ward, as has been our habit for the last few weeks. We trialled a new tune “Astley’s Ride” which worked well in 4 time with the potential for patients to join in and turned into a waltz quite easily too – much to explore with that one in the future?

We entered the post / pre op ward behind the reception area with some caution. A young boy was being asked to take some medicine by his father, and he appeared worried about this prospect. A mother lay curled up in a chair, waiting for the return of her child. A three-year-old girl sat with her mother, obviously distressed and possibly feeling sick. Another little girl sat with her parents at the end of the room, and a teenaged girl lay apparently sleeping. This was quite an array of different situations presenting themselves at the same time in the one room, so some careful consideration was needed as to what music to play and with what character and volume.

We chose “Mari’s Wedding”, normally a jolly polka, but we started it as a relaxed and calm waltz, knowing that if the mood required it we could pick up the pace and change the dynamics according to the space. We played around the tune and improvised the melody and structure about 5 times as we slowly moved down the room. However, it did not seem appropriate to change the tempo and mood, so we remained in three time.

The little girl at the end of the room with her parents engaged with us and locked an intrigued stare with me as i played the piece and moved towards her, the teenager awoke slightly and lay in bed listening. The little boy relaxed and took his medicine and found something else to play with. The distressed little girl cried more, cuddled with her mother, relaxed and almost drifted off to sleep by the time we left the room.

It was only a matter of minutes that we were in that space, but it felt as though our music had provided an opportunity for the mood of the whole room to transition from distressed to relaxed; from unrest to calm. Hard to quantify something like this, but I was moved to tears on exiting the room.

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.

Friday 29th June work at Derby Children’s Hospital

First thing in the morning, and Rich and I found ourselves starting our musical day as a duo this week – five string fiddle, voices, bodhran and ukelele. We began by playing in the open waiting room area of Sunflower Ward, where there were some staff and parents and grand parents conversing in sign. We played for a while, assessing the potential for moving into one of the pre/post op wards next door. After that piece we moved into one of these wards to play for two families waiting with young people in bed – there was much tapping of toes and nodding in approval of our music. Just when we thought we would end our Sunshine song and move on, a younger child returned from a procedure upset and crying, changing the mood on the ward completely. Rich and I matched the volume of the child and continued playing – the child connected with our music within 30 seconds and began to calm – there was good eye contact and visible relaxation of the patient and we then brought the volume and pace of our music down to take the mood to an even more relaxed state. Eyes began to close and parent and grandparents thanked us for being there – quite a special few moments!