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

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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

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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…

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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

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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.

First Session in Children’s A&E

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On the 1st of June we were very pleased to be invited down to do some playing in the waiting areas of Children’s Accident and Emergency department. We spent about 45 minutes there in the afternoon and had some good musical interactions with the children who were waiting there. When we were reflecting on how the day had gone we all agreed that the space had a very different feel to the other wards. Unsurprisingly so, as the children who were there had almost certainly not got up that morning expecting to spend any time in hospital that day! Anxiety levels were higher among the children and they were more reticent about engaging with musicians. There was a lot more ‘playing for’ than ‘playing with’ in that space but the music did seem appreciated. We had some nice comments from parents and a number of people thanked us as we left the spaces. We now know that children’s A&E has a different pace to other wards and the patients who are there are in a very different state of mind to many of the other patients that we work with. This area has opened up another exciting and interesting challenge for us as musicians working in hospital.

Should I stay or should I go?

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Through playing music in hospital wards we are constantly learning to read patients reactions and developing our sensitivity as to whether a patient is happy for us to be there, wants us to be there or would rather we left. Sometimes this is easy as the patient gives a clear response to our arrival and we can feel confident as to whether we should stay and play or leave.

On Friday 1st of June I was part of an interaction in a day surgery ward that went something like this… We entered the 8 bed ward and played for the children and their families there. We were met with a variety of reactions from the patients on the ward, from interest, through indifference to excitement. We felt confident to stay and play. We played for about ten minutes and had engaged a couple of children who had interacted with us to varying degrees, but all positively.

While this was going on a child (who we later found out was just one year old) was brought back onto the ward from surgery. He was coming round from anaesthetic and was in some discomfort and distress and there was very little that mum could do to comfort him. He would not stop crying. At the end of the piece we had been playing Sarah moved over and started playing for the boy. Nick was playing behind her and I was some feet away able to view the scene from a distance but still able to provide musical accompaniment. As I watched and played and the piece progressed I couldn’t see that what we were doing was having any discernible effect on the boy or even that he had registered our presence, even though Sarah was only a couple of feet away and crouching down playing at the boys eye level.

I was starting to feel uncomfortable and that perhaps we were distressing the boy more and my reaction was to move away but Sarah continued to play so I stayed and played. After a few more seconds (that to me felt like a long while) the boy all of a sudden stopped crying and became transfixed by Sarah. He stared straight at her and became completely absorbed in the music that she was playing on her fiddle. Nick and I stayed in a supporting role continuing to play but leaving Sarah free to steer the interaction. She carried the piece on for a couple of minutes during which time the boys gaze did not leave her once. The boy seemed calmed, still and relieved of physical discomfort.

Mum made the comment “I wish we had you at home!” and both adults continued to remark at how soothed he was by the music. After a couple of minutes more the boy seemed to become aware of his physical discomfort once more and started to cry again. As he did so we started to leave but continued playing as we left the ward.

For me it was a lesson in gentle persistence. I would have left the interaction before anything had had a chance to happen. Trying to judge a patients reaction to the music you are playing in hospital can be very difficult and requires a mixture of self confidence, humility and to keep the mantra of ‘expect nothing’ at the forefront of your mind. Just remember not to ‘expect nothing’ too soon!

Youth Music Grant supporting Music in Health Programme

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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

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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

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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

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

Derbyshire Children’s Hospital residency – feedback

The eyes have it…

Collaborative music-making

First Session in Children’s A&E

Should I stay or should I go?

Youth Music Grant supporting Music in Health Programme

Sheffield Hospital Residency

Derbyshire Children’s Hospital

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