News & Blog
We’re wrapping up another busy year…
10 Years of Wishing Well
This year we celebrated 10 whole years since starting the first ever Wishing Well music-making sessions with The Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton! So much has happened over the last decade so we made a little something to give you an insight into what that means for us.
Public Space Sessions
In addition to our work on the wards, we took some time to share our music in the public spaces at Princess Royal and Royal Sussex County Hospitals. We had a fantastic response and look forward to more sessions in 2024!
Southeast Arts Champion
We continued to represent The Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance as the South East Arts Champion, where we share knowledge and grow collaborations and partnerships across the region! Take a look at the South East Region here.
Thank You!
We received generous support from a number of organisations who have ensured we will be able to keep doing what we do best for longer! A huge ‘thank you’ goes to…
- Arts Council England
- The National Foundation for Youth Music
- Brighton and Hove City Council
- Chalk Cliff Trust
- The Garfield Weston Foundation
- The Foyle Foundation
- Ernest Klienwort Foundation
- SASH Charity
- Friends of Uckfield Hospital
- My University Hospital Sussex Charity
- Surrey Community Foundation
- The Margaret Fisher Trust
- The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
Creative Health Review Launch – Live Stream
Wednesday 6th December 2023, 4-6pm, online
Join the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing for a live stream of the Launch of the Creative Health Review on 6th December 2023. Live Streamed from Science Gallery London, King’s College.
The Creative Health Review highlights the potential for creative health to help tackle pressing issues in health, social care and more widely, including health inequalities and recovery from COVID-19. It demonstrates that creativity is not just a nice to have, but fundamental to individuals, communities and systems. It supports people to live well for longer, reducing the pressure on health and social care systems and contributing to a healthy and prosperous society.
The Review makes recommendations to Government and Metro Mayors for a cross-departmental strategy on creative health, which will support creative health to flourish and maximise its potential across key policy areas.
Since October 2022, the Review has held a series of online roundtables presenting evidence and examples of the powerful influence creative health can have on our health and wellbeing. Recordings of all the roundtables can be viewed via NCCH’s YouTube channel.
As part of our Youth Music funded programme in children and young people’s healthcare settings, we’re excited to offer places on our Apprenticeship Programme throughout 2024.
Successful applicants will work alongside the Wishing Well team in one of our partner hospitals for 10 weeks, receiving additional support and training before and after their project. This is a paid opportunity to gain experience working with children, young people and families in acute healthcare and to acquire skills which are transferable to all aspects of a music-based portfolio career.
Criteria for Apprentices
- Have some experience/training in musical leadership in community settings.
- This is a paid opportunity so you need to be registered as self-employed and have public liability insurance in place (we can help you with both of those things if needed).
- A keen interest in bringing your music into acute healthcare settings, using your skills to support the wellbeing of the hospital community through connection, empowerment and expression.
- A good communicator and be keen to develope a “reflective” practice.
- To be available for a 10-week placement at one of our 2 partner hospitals in Haywards Health (mid-Sussex) or Brighton. (sessions are 2 hours long on a set day each week).
Placements
Chalk Hill, an in-patient CAMHs (child and adolescent mental health) ward in Haywards Heath (mid-Sussex), supporting our resident musician with one-to-one and small group sessions involving multi-instrumental work, composition, songwriting and production.
The Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton. Bedside music-making in children’s critical care and medical wards. Appropriate children’s repertoire and confidence with singing and percussion are essential.
How to Get Involved
This is a rolling programme throughout 2023/24. To register your interest in the programme, please email [email protected]
We’re looking forward to hearing from you!
During the autumn term, I had the joy of taking part in the apprenticeship programme with Bela at Forget Me Not, a dementia assessment unit, running community music workshops. This was an incredibly insightful experience for me. Working alongside Bela taught me so much about how to be a good community musician and the skills needed. Throughout the weeks, I felt more comfortable letting myself out of my own musical bubble to open myself to what was going on in the room. This experience also helped me to read the room and adapt to the energy and mood of the participants, but also making sure that everyone was as included as possible. There were a couple of instances when someone in the room had very high energy and was enjoying the free drumming whilst others wanted more repertoire-based music. Being able to discuss these decisions along with Bela and the OT’s after the sessions was very valuable to reflect on.
It was very interesting to notice the changes over the weeks in their engagement. Sometimes it was slight and sometimes we saw participants who had never actively engaged, sing entire songs to us and the group. One participant who was usually asleep during the sessions in her movable chair/bed sang the ‘Hokey Cokey’ from her bed after which the whole group joined and tried doing as many of the movements. I experienced so many beautiful moments during my apprenticeship there, and the feedback from the participants during the sessions reinforced that feeling of joy:
One participant who had been retreating to his room since his arrival told us after his first music session during which he very actively engaged with the drums “You are all my brothers and sisters. When I am with my brothers and sisters, I can do anything”. The same participant told us after his second music session. “I feel happy. Before, I felt sad”. Another participant in the female ward said to us after her first session “I’ve never experienced anything like it. We just all improvised. We didn’t know each other and it all came together beautifully. It’s the power of music and the power of people”.
We are looking for new Trustees to complement our existing board.
What is a Trustee?
Trustees have overall control of a charity and are responsible for making sure it’s doing what it was set up to do. They may be known as other titles such as directors; board members, committee members; governors. Whatever they are called, trustees are the people who lead the charity and decide how it is run.
Benefits
- Be part of a small team making a big difference to healthcare settings across Sussex.
- Contribute your knowledge and experience to an organisation with real expertise in bringing arts and health together in partnership.
- All expenses covered.
Although not essential, we particularly encourage applications from people with ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, disabilities and lived experience of the following;
- Lived experience of caring for someone living with dementia.
- Lived experience of caring for a child with health or mental health challenges.
We meet in-person four times a year in Brighton, although extra time in between meetings might be needed as appropriate.
For more information see our Trustee Opportunity Pack
To discuss joining our Board, please email Jo White: [email protected]
We look forward to hearing from you!
Congratulations and big thanks to all 38 students who completed our ‘Music and the Future Doctor’ module this year!
We provide an elective module and Brighton and Sussex Medical School, which includes essential learning for future doctors in using a hospital musicians’ approach to building trust and rapport with patients and families. This ultimately leads to better clinical care.
We use examples from our decade of working with people in hospitals to explore the change when access to live, participatory music is included in hospital care.
We have, as ever, learned a lot from your discussions and presentations. Good luck with your ongoing studies!
Thank you, Janet Lee and Kamal Patel who helped us create and assess this course & Bela Emerson for leading the course.
