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Music and Health

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.

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.

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

Music and Health Training

OPUS is delivering a 4 day programme of training for musicians wishing to work in healthcare settings in partnership with MusicLeader, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. This will take place in Derby on 23rd and 24th February and in Sheffield on 8th and 9th March. Applications are to be made to MusicLeader. Limited spaces available which will get booked up quickly. For more information see here: MusicLeader

Derbyshire Children’s Hospital

From January to December 2011, 4 OPUS musicians have taken music-making to the children, visitors and staff at Derbyshire Children’s Hospital for one day per week. This highly succesful and innovative programme of activity has been delivered with support from Youth Music, Derby City Council and the hospital’s charitable trust. Feedback from all involved has been overwhelmingly positive, with patients, visitors and staff reporting a calmed and enjoyable atmosphere, patients feeling released from pain and anxiety and parents and staff able to make musical connections with children.

This has been one of OPUS’ most enjoyable and succesful projects to date, and OPUS is currently making plans to continue this activity for a further 2 years from April 2012.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals

For the past 12 months, OPUS has been engaged in music-making at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals: Royal Hallamshire, Weston Park and Northern General Hosptials. 2 musicians have been visiting the hospitals for one day oer week to make music with adult in and out-patients. Patients undertaking cheomtherapy treatment, those with neurological and spinal injuries, and those having dialysis treatment have all enjoyed music on wards, and have taken part in the music-making activities. Recent work has taken place with elderly patients on a rehabilitation ward, bringing culture and enjoyment to often long-term hospitalised patients.

OPUS is hoping to continue this work throughout 2012, supported by Zest Arts in Health and OPUS’ generous corporate sponsors.