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Music and Health

Having Something to Say

Our first visit of the year to Nottingham QMC in January 2014, and Rich and I went into E40 Ward first thing in the morning and checked with staff for advice on where to start playing and who to work with.

We walked right to the end of the unit, passing a sleepy patient on the left who was having a good cuddle with his Mum and watching TV. We met a lively little girl who listened to our music first of all, and then joined in with actions and singing and then happily explored the box of instruments, each one in turn, fully. After playing with all that we had to offer, she then showed us a squeezy plastic concertina that belonged to the hospital, which she had been enjoying the previous day.

Our sleepy friend next door had been listening all the way through this interaction and had woken up a bit now. We began playing Waltz vor Polle for him, and then a melody that he knew, The Star of the County Down, as Mum told us that they were a family who sang a lot of folk songs together and that was one they knew. His attention was then drawn to our box of instruments and he tried out the frog, various shakers and the cabassa. There was no speech from him during this entire time, but a little smile had begun at the corners of his mouth and Mum indicated that was a very good step forwards for today. Our engagement started to come to an end – Mum commented to us that he nearly said goodbye – and tried to encourage him to sign and say bye to us. Just as we were potentially finishing our interaction, another young man returned to the same bay from some kind of treatment, with his head wrapped in a bandage. He was crying upon his return, but saw and heard us as we started another piece and he joined us with shakers and smiled.

After this piece, we had a little time out, cleaning our instruments in the play area adjacent, and this second boy starting really crying as his head was obviously uncomfortable. The crying became more intense and we decided to start Sunshine, and played for the whole room. By now, the first young boy’s father had arrived from parking the car, and Mum was telling him how their son had engaged with us and nearly spoke. This seemed to be something of note regarding his stay in hospital.

The whole room was engaged with our piece – parents singing, the multi-coloured toy bear was being made to dance by the first little boy – he himself wriggled on the bed – the tears from the boy in the other bed stopped. The song ended and some toast arrived for the second boy, so he could focus on something nice to eat. The first boy started talking to us a lot – it was fairly jumbled speech, but had the rough overall meaning of saying he had done a lot there and was tired, and he lay down on the covers with his bear as if to rest. Mum and Dad seemed delighted.

We both walked out of that ward with tears in our eyes, and had to take time out to reflect on the whole engagement and change our mood ready for the next patients. We do not know what was happening in terms of the illnesses or traumas of these two children and their families, but we left with the distinct impression that we had made a huge difference that day. Somehow the music, incorporating sung words, had reached the first little boy in some way that speech could not. He was perhaps more relaxed and able to respond to the song verbally than he could before to the spoken word. A connection was made – we don’t know how temporary or permanent, but it felt like one of great impact at the time.

Later we learnt from the Headteacher of the Hospital School that she had spent some time with the parents of this young man, and it had indeed been an important day where his speech had occurred for the first time in a long while.

A Moving Musical Experience.

One visit to a Children’s Hospital in November 2013 we were passing through one ward on our way to work in another, or so we thought……we were spotted and invited into one young patient’s room by his Mum.

She already knew us and knew of our work, as we had met before when her older daughter had been in the same hospital previously. Recently, her young baby had been having difficulty in passing faecal matter over the last four days and as a result was constipated and unable to take in much milk when hungry. He was crying in Mum’s arms as she struggled to get him to drink 30 ml of milk, and then appeared in pain.

We entered the room and played a variety of suitable pieces from our repertoire. The doctors came by the room and went away again, encouraging us to stay as if to see what result might occur from our music…..we stayed about 15-20 mins. The baby calmed and Mum was able to lay him down for a rest. We left and went off to another ward where we worked for the rest of the morning.

On our way back through to break for lunch, we put our heads around the door of the room with Mum and baby. She reported that the little one had had a massive bowel movement, had taken some more milk, and had slept for the rest of the morning uninterrupted.

New year updates…

Happy New Year from everyone at OPUS Music CIC.

It was an extremely busy end to the year for everyone at OPUS, and as such there’s much to update here. We will get on top of all the updates over the coming week. Some of the highlights from the end of the year are:

Continuing Music in Hospitals practice at Derbyshire, Nottingham, Leicester and Kings Mill Children’s Hospitals/Wards.
Continuing Music in Hospitals practice at Northern General Hospital, Sheffield (Sheffield Teaching Hospitals)
The beginning of a new, shorter-term residency at Nottinghamshire Hospice
A new phase of the Taking the Lead on Music for Wellbeing project, working with young musicians from Ilkeston Ormiston Academy to make music at their local care home.
A 5-day training programme for musicians looking to take music into healthcare settings
A 2-day training programme, followed by ongoing mentoring for 2 musicians working alongside our programme of music-making at Nottingham Children’s Hospital.

Finally, we also hosted an incredibly successful International Music in Healthcare Settings Symposium in partnership with the Royal Derby Hospital, attended by over 80 people from the UK and beyond.

We are delighted to say that much of this practice is continuing into this new year. More updates soon!

 

 

Musicians in Hospitals – Training and Mentoring Programme, Nottingham, UK – COURSE FULL

THIS COURSE HAS NOW BEEN FILLED. If you are interested in attending our training in the future, please email us at training@opusmusic.org and we will contact you when we launch our next programme.

OPUS Music CIC, in partnership with Nottingham Music Hub, is offering a training and mentoring programme for musicians working in, or interested in working in healthcare settings.

Initially there will be a two-day programme of training for up to eight musicians (unpaid). Following the training sessions, two trainees will be selected by interview to go forward as mentees to the ten day mentoring programme (paid) to be held at the Nottingham Children’s Hospital, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham.

Training will take place on 12th and 19th November 2013 in Nottingham, UK, with mentoring taking place on Tuesdays between December 2013 and March 2014.

For full details download the brief here: Musician’s Brief (Adobe PDF)
The application form is here: Word DocumentAdobe PDF file

dialysis violin playing

 

Music in Healthcare Settings Training for Musicians – applications now closed – course full.

reflective moment 1THIS COURSE HAS NOW BEEN FILLED.

If you are interested in attending our training in the future, please email us at training@opusmusic.org and we will contact you when we launch our next programme.

 

 

Some of the feedback from trainees on our previous courses:

‘Thank you so much for this opportunity. It was such a pleasure to explore such an exciting aspect of music making with such lovely like minded musicians, with such a high level of professional standard from the trainers delivering this course. I can’t believe we made such fantastic progress in only five days, and I am thoroughly invigorated by what I have seen can be achieved with music in a hospital setting.’

‘This course is really is a must for any musician who wishes to work in healthcare settings. The course leaders are lovely to work with and obviously are very passionate and knowledgeable about their vocation. It’s a massive learning curve, and you must approach it with an open mind and willingness to learn, but you get a lot of support in a really welcoming and friendly environment. I’ve come away feeling inspired and challenged and informed and able to use all I’ve learnt in my own practice straightaway. It is also amazingly good value for money!’

‘Professional, personally and as a musician, this has been absolutely the best course I’ve ever been on. It’s been a fantastic privilege working with a supportive group of musicians, superb facilitation from the course team and a great mix of theory and practice which has equipped me to start my journey into working in healthcare settings.’

‘A fantastic week for those who are interested in learning more about music in a healthcare setting, expanding their repertoire, developing skills in improvising and meeting some truly lovely people!’

‘This course is an excellent introduction and grounding in the professional practice of music in healthcare. It is presented with great professionalism and expertise.’

‘This will test and stretch the way you think about delivering any kind of music intervention. I’d recommend you have previously at least practised this in some way so that you can self-examine and reflect. 100% professional programme in content and delivery. Complements all other training I’ve done and widened my horizons.’

‘Bring an open mind, and be prepared to learn and share.’

‘The course gives an exciting insight into what music in healthcare is like, which can really open your eyes to something new, I know it did for me. There is the chance to experiment with music within a comfortable, relaxed setting, which as a person who hates improvising I found completely stress free and fun. As well as this you learn so many transferable skills for jobs including music and for everyday life which makes the course really worth while.’

Symposium: Sustaining Professional Music in Healthcare Settings Practice

10am – 4pm, Monday 25th November 2013 The Education Centre, Royal Derby Hospital, Derby, UK

conference-room2LGOPUS Music CIC, in association with Air Arts to Aid Wellbeing and the Royal Derby Hospital presents a one-day symposium to share, discuss and debate on the topic of Sustaining Professional Music in Healthcare Settings Practice.

Bringing together key stakeholders including musicians, healthcare professionals, academics and other partners involved in the development of music (and arts) in healthcare settings practice from across the UK and beyond, this symposium will support the generation and sharing of increased understanding, knowledge and ideas required to sustain this practice.

This symposium forms part of a wider programme of activity delivered by OPUS Music CIC to advocate for and disseminate on this practice and is funded by Youth Music, Derby Hospital Charity, Nottinghamshire County Council, Leicester City Council and Nottingham Hospitals Charity with additional support from all partner hospitals, Derbyshire City and County Music Partnership and Air Arts to Aid Wellbeing.

The symposium will be of interest if you are:

• Interested in finding out about music in healthcare settings practice locally, regionally, nationally and internationally
• Keen to explore how to develop and/or sustain music in healthcare practice within your own setting/region
• Looking to share your own ideas, practice or expertise in the area of music in healthcare settings
• Wanting to network with a range of arts and health professionals

The symposium is open to all with an interest in this practice (subject to capacity).
A charge of £10 per delegate will be made towards the costs of running the symposium.

For more information, please contact Nick Cutts, Director, OPUS Music CIC

nick@opusmusic.org
01773 861630 / 07786 157515
facebook.com/opusmusic.org
twitter.com/music_health

Symposium tickets are available at: opusmusic.eventbrite.co.uk

Seeing Things Through

Tuesday 9th July saw Richard Kensington and Sarah Matthews of Opus, out on the sunny roof in the play area of a Children’s Hospital. There were many patients enjoying the sunshine with parents and visitors and staff. We met one little girl dancing around with a tennis racket in a pretty white dress. We played for her, and others present, and allowed time for everyone to get accustomed to the music and instruments in that space.

Wind the Bobbin Up seemed appropriate, with voice and actions and instruments. We sang together for a while, and other patients joined in and began exploring the musical instruments in our box. The Mother of the little girl said that it had been a great way to kill time and relax a bit whilst waiting for her operation. I checked which ward they were going back to, thinking to myself that it might be possible to follow through this little girl’s day, and help her later. They were based in a ward that we had not visited yet.

After spending quite a while longer out on the roof, singing and playing to patients in the ball pool, up the stairs and down the slide, on the bikes, and other activities, we settled in the shaded area with one young man who was very interested in exploring the xylophone with patterns and a variety of tonal combinations.

When he had finished, we wandered back into the ward, and found the little girl from the roof ready in her operation gown, crying in her Mummy’s arms whilst waiting to go down to surgery. We began with Twinkle Twinkle and gained her attention again. She stopped crying and listened more calmly. Dad told us she really liked Row Row Row Your Boat, and made a few suggestions for variations to the words, which we were happy to incorporate. Then it was time to get into bed and go down the corridor to surgery. I checked with Mum that she was happy for us to stay with them and follow them down the corridor to the lift area. Mum was very keen for us to support as she commented she was amazed at the effect of the music on her daughter, and herself also.

The staff arrived and it was time to process down to the lifts. Rich and I played The Grand Old Duke Of York and sang as we followed the family out of the bay and through the ward and across to the lift area. The little girl was listening and stayed calm. We left them as the lift door closed, and Mum was saying she could not believe how the music had helped in making the while process go more smoothly and with less stress.

Rich and I went about our business for lunchtime and the early part of the afternoon. Finally we worked our way back to the bay where we found the little girl had returned from her operation and was calmly coming round from the anaesthetic and having a drink. We were able to choose gentle pieces to ease her back to reality in a relaxed way.

When I gave Mum and Dad our business card and asked if they would like to comment on how the music had affected their day, they said they definitely would and it had made a huge difference!

Music in Healthcare Training Opportunity: 31st October, 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th November 2013

DSC_7887 edited smallWe are pleased to announce that our next Music in Healthcare Settings training programme for musicians will take place on 31st October, 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th November 2013. This will take place at the Kedleston Road Training and Development Centre in Derby, UK, with part of the time spent at the Royal Derby Hospital/Derbyshire Children’s Hospital.

A full brief and application form are attached below. You are advised to send your application asap as places usually fill up quickly.
Please get in touch with any questions you may have.

Music in Healthcare Training opportunity Artists Brief Oct-Nov 2013 (pdf)

Application Form (doc)
Application Form (pdf)

Some of the feedback from trainees on our previous courses:

‘Thank you so much for this opportunity. It was such a pleasure to explore such an exciting aspect of music making with such lovely like minded musicians, with such a high level of professional standard from the trainers delivering this course. I can’t believe we made such fantastic progress in only five days, and I am thoroughly invigorated by what I have seen can be achieved with music in a hospital setting.’

‘This course is really is a must for any musician who wishes to work in healthcare settings. The course leaders are lovely to work with and obviously are very passionate and knowledgeable about their vocation. It’s a massive learning curve, and you must approach it with an open mind and willingness to learn, but you get a lot of support in a really welcoming and friendly environment. I’ve come away feeling inspired and challenged and informed and able to use all I’ve learnt in my own practice straightaway. It is also amazingly good value for money!’

‘Professional, personally and as a musician, this has been absolutely the best course I’ve ever been on. It’s been a fantastic privilege working with a supportive group of musicians, superb facilitation from the course team and a great mix of theory and practice which has equipped me to start my journey into working in healthcare settings.’

‘A fantastic week for those who are interested in learning more about music in a healthcare setting, expanding their repertoire, developing skills in improvising and meeting some truly lovely people!’

‘This course is an excellent introduction and grounding in the professional practice of music in healthcare. It is presented with great professionalism and expertise.’

‘This will test and stretch the way you think about delivering any kind of music intervention. I’d recommend you have previously at least practised this in some way so that you can self-examine and reflect. 100% professional programme in content and delivery. Complements all other training I’ve done and widened my horizons.’

‘Bring an open mind, and be prepared to learn and share.’

‘The course gives an exciting insight into what music in healthcare is like, which can really open your eyes to something new, I know it did for me. There is the chance to experiment with music within a comfortable, relaxed setting, which as a person who hates improvising I found completely stress free and fun. As well as this you learn so many transferable skills for jobs including music and for everyday life which makes the course really worth while.’

Keep CALM and make music…

It’s a busy week this week. Sarah and Richard are making music in Nottingham, Derbyshire and Kings Mill children’s hospitals working with patients, visitors and staff. Meanwhile Nick had an early start this morning to head over to Ireland for 3 days for the launch of a fabulous new organisation CALM (Ceol Agus Lán Maitheas) which has been established by highly trained music in healthcare colleagues from Ireland to provide training and mentoring for musicians and healthcare staff. Nick will be contributing to a training day and an international seminar day during his visit. Meanwhile here are some pretty clouds over the Irish sea…

image

Harry’s blog

It’s always a great pleasure to make music with Harry. Here’s one of the many benefits we see from music-making with hospitalised patients, from the parent’s perspective…
Harry’s Blog

Busy week of music making

We are busily engaged as usual this week with music-making taking place at Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and Kings Mill hospitals along with the ‘Taking the Lead’ project currently taking place in Staveley working with students from Springwell Community College. Great to make so many lives richer through music making.

St George’s Day

 

We were working on a ward in Leicester Hospital on Tuesday 23rd April and played our way round to a corner room where the door was wide open. Inside there was a little baby all dressed in green pyjamas. When he saw us he looked quite anxious – Who were these People? What were they carrying with them? And what were they going to do?

 

I was reminded of the training we had recently been doing with musicians in healthcare, and the ethics we had discussed. I knew I wanted to provide some nice music for this young man to enhance his stay in hospital, but was very aware I did not want to alarm him. He was in a very vulnerable position, with assisted breathing equipment, in a seated position in bed, with no adult he knew nearby.

 

We decided to play Twinkle, with no eye contact, just letting the music reach out to him and then observed his reactions. The music became part of his environment and more normal to him. He appeared to relax and began to smile intermittently.

 

My intention was then to help him feel more comfortable with us being there and thereby allow him access to more music and to enjoy himself.

 

Slowly, but surely, the smiling became more frequent, movement increased with stretching, reaching, sitting up and leg extensions – dancing as much as he could. He started to tip his head back, mouth wide in a silent laughter and caught my eye with glee – as if teasing me. Eye contact now not a threat to him, we shared quite long gazes.

 

I left him apparently relaxed and smiling and his nurse came by and shared the moment with us. I was reminded of how important eye contact is at the right time and with the right intensity, and felt so glad I had my training to help me make this interaction successful for this little baby and indeed a lovely experience for both of us.

Music in Healthcare Settings Training

DSC_7887 edited small

From 11th-17th April, we have been busy delivering our latest 5-day training course for musicians, exploring the skills and competencies required of a musician to work in healthcare settings.

Over the course of five days, 8 trainees and 3 trainers have worked together to develop their skills, knowledge and awareness and visited the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital to make music with patients, visitors and staff on medical and surgical wards, in Neonatal Intensive Care and in Children’s Accident and Emergency.

All found the training experience to be stimulating, exciting and hugely developmental. We would like to thank our fantastic group of trainees for their music, their passion for this practice and for their deep reflection which has helped us all to learn and to develop.

Thanks also to our funders and supporters of this practice, including the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, Youth Music and Derbyshire Music Partnership for making this training course possible.

DSC_7882 edited small

Music and Health Research

Some great links to research papers by Constanza Preti et al at this link here.
http://imerc.academia.edu/CostanzaPreti

‘Costanza Preti, PhD, is a Research Associate at the International Music Education Research Centre (iMerc), Institute of Education, University of London. Her primary research is in music and health and includes a major study examining the impact of live music programmes in paediatric hospitals. Costanza has been awarded a Wingate scholarship and her research has been funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). She has worked on a number of funded projects including: The evaluation of the ‘Progetto Musica in Emilia-Romagna’, funded by the MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education); Evaluation of the Sing Up National Singing Programme (DfES); Research evaluation of Soundabout a charity specialized in musical provisions for special needs children; Evaluation of Voices Foundation Primer (DfES). She has been editorial assistant and reviews editor for Psychology of Music (Sage)’

Inspiration

When we work in hospital we never know who we are likely to meet and what reaction we will get to our music. Mostly people react positively to us when we arrive with our instruments, sometimes people join in with us but it is rare to find someone with instrument at the ready and desperate to do some playing!

The other day we were invited into a room where two nurses were just finishing a treatment on a little girl. Her mum and another visitor were with her. We played a piece and her face lit up. Then I noticed that she had a ukulele on her bed, so I switched from playing bodhran to ukulele. She was really pleased about that so I tuned up her uke for her and she showed us the song she knew and we all joined in and played together. She played really well and put so much energy into her song that it was a real joy to watch and play along with her. We had a little chat about music and then did some more playing. We played another song and as Sarah and Sarah played and sang the words I sang the chords and the girl started to join in on the Uke. After about 4 times round the song she had it and again she played along with real vigor even saying that she was enjoying herself so much she didn’t want to go home which she was scheduled to do later that day.

Sarah had a copy of the words and the chords with her so she let the girl have them. We left the room to the sound of the girl playing away on her ukuele with all the adults in the room singing along and saying that if she has to come back to hospital she will make sure it is on a Tuesday when we are in.

I play music everyday and although it is always a pleasure it was a real gift to be confronted with the unadulterated joy that this little girl had in playing her music. She devoured the chance of learning something new and delighted in everyone playing together. Seeing her play reminded me why I started playing in the first place.

Music in Healthcare Training – Brighton

It’s a great pleasure to be spending time in Brighton this week, working alongside the lovely Kate Murdoch at the invitation of Rhythmix to deliver a week of Music in Healthcare training to a group of 10 trainees. We have a great group with broad-ranging backgrounds and interests which should make for a really rich week of learning for all of us.

Today was spent in the training room, enjoying music-making together, beginning to generate shared repertoire within the group, and looking at the background to arts/music in health in the UK today. Lots for everyone to take in from today, but a great start. Tomorrow will be another training room day, exploring music-making on a one-to-one basis before heading off to the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital together on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons to make music on the wards with children and young people, their visitors and staff.

Many thanks to Rhythmix and Kate for the invitation. It’s great to be working with you.

A Family Affair – 12/2/2013

Walking onto one of the wards today myself, Richard, Sarah and Roxy observed the space and it was suggested by Sarah and Richard that we spread out around the ward which was in a horse shoe shape with private rooms on the side. This meant that as we dispersed around the room we had to listen out for what each other were playing and respond sensitively to each other as our aim was for us all to be engaged in interactions. On first entering the space we played Sunshine in my heart, an uplifting song. On my left hand side there was a young boy, his father and his sister. The father was hugging the young boy and swaying to the music. Richard handed the young boy and the farther a shaker, which they took with enthusiasm. However, the young girl was reluctant and did not take the shaker. Despite this she sat with her brother and father whilst we played the song. When the song ended the father and young boy requested more. So I conversed with Sarah who was with Roxy on the other side of the room and she signalled to Richard who had gone into one of the side rooms. We then began playing another song Zamina. The father and his son started playing instantly and I could see that the young girl was interested in having a shaker of her own so I went and got one for her out of the box. After the first time round playing Zamina I could hear the father singing the harmony to the songs melody and he had placed his mouth near the ear of his son and was singing this harmony softly. Half way through Zamina the mother had returned to the young boy’s bed side, at first she sat down and picked up a magazine and seemed uninterested. Then all of a sudden she started dancing and so I handed her a shaker, and by the end of the song the whole family were playing and dancing. During their musical interaction the family shared a precious moment where they were group hugging and were swaying in unison to the song. We then played yellow bird and the dancing and singing continued. Jane Edwards (2011) writes how using music is valuable for parent and infant bonding and in this musical interaction I was able to witness the family bonding with each other.

Expectations

I am thoroughly enjoying doing my placement with OPUS and I have had some fantastic musical interactions with the children, their families and the staff at both Nottingham and Leicester hospital. I have also learnt a lot from taking moments to stand back and watch the OPUS musicians Nick, Richard and Sarah in their musical interactions. On one particular afternoon I also experienced the lesson of ‘‘Have No Expectations’. This is something Nick had mentioned in the musician training course that I attended in October of last year. During my afternoon at the hospital I found that we mainly played and then vacated the space as most people seemed to enjoy listening but not wanting to take up the offer of playing a percussion instrument or singing along.
After a morning of rewarding Social interactions it did seem to move more slowly for me. However, as the OPUS musicians reminded me, in the hospital space we are there first and foremost as musicians and if that is what required at that time that is what we do. This was a good lesson to revisit because being a musician and playing repertoire is just as important as the more social interactions. Ronald Borcazon (2004) Writes how “listening to music can be considered interactive if it is purposeful in nature” (9).I would consider all the music used in the hospital purposeful in nature as its aim is to first and foremost to create a positive atmosphere. My lesson from this afternoon was that I do not need to have a full on social musical interaction to have a positive effect on the space and that allowing people to just listen to the music is a very important part of OPUS has to offer.

Taking the lead on music for wellbeing

A great evening of training and music-making last night with a group of young people and volunteers from the Drop Inn in Belper, Derbyshire. We are working with these young people, developing their musical and leadership skills and working towards taking music sessions into their local care home. A fascinating and challenging project but should be really rewarding for everyone involved.