News & Blog
We are over the moon to announce that Programme Director, Jo White was announced winner of the Musician’s Union “Inspiration” Award 2018 for her work with the Rhythmix, Wishing Well programme! In just 4 years Wishing Well has grown from a pilot project at The Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton, to a Sussex wide Music in Healthcare programme working in partnership with 6 NHS Trusts. Every week, our Musicians bring music making into hospitals across Sussex and Surrey to work as part of the hospital team, helping to improve people’s stay in hospitals and reduce some of the anxiety that people can feel. We receive such incredible feedback from the families that we work with about how music making has helped their child or an older relative through a difficult time; music really can reach places that medecine can’t and we are looking forward to many more years of making music where it is really needed.
Programme Director Jo White is taking a 24 hour sponsored challenge for Wishing Well!
“The music starts…and it all comes flooding back”
We urgently need to raise funds so that we can keep bringing the extraordinary benefits of music making to people who are living with dementia.
So – I am organising a fund-raising, music-making, non-stop 24-hour jam in Brighton. I will play music for 24 hours pretty much non stop using my voice, my accordion, music technology, percussion and anything else I can think of from sunrise on the 25th until sunrise on the 26th November. I will be joined throughout the 24 hours by a whole load of musicians friends; community choirs, fiddle players, sing songwriters, experimentalists and improvisors. The event will take place in the exquisite Regency Ballroom of Angel House, right on the seafront in Brighton. I’m, slightly nervous…and very busy pulling together creative ideas and sorting logistics but I am very very excited!
I want to fundraise personally and creatively for people with dementia because every single day in our work we see the difference that music makes. The late great Oliver Sacks called music ” the past embedded in amber”. I think of it like this; when we make music with people that is meaningful to them, it’s like shining a light on who they are; personalities shine through and they are illuminated. They connect outwards again “like a flower unfurling”
Please help us support people with dementia
You can sponsor me through my JustGiving page here
Or TEXT WWJO48 £5/£10/£25 to 70070
We’ve been working with people with dementia at Arundel Community Hospital in West Sussex as part of a research study with Sussex Community NHS Trust. A few of the many beautiful moments of joy and connection shared between musicians, patients, families and nursing staff are captured here in this short film commissioned by Sussex Community Foundation NHS Trust and made by West Creative.
The study investigates how live music making helps people with dementia and their families feel less anxious and better connected during their hospital stay. Are musicians a valuable resource for busy hospital wards? Does making music help hospital staff to engage in meaningful ways with their patients? We’ll be sharing the findings later this year.
You can watch the film here
To help us learn more about the impact of music making in hospitals on our team of musicians, the healthcare professionals they work with and the children and families they support we commissioned an evaluation from Dr Anneli Haake. Dr Haake carried out a thematic analysis of the reports that the Musicians write up as part of their reflective practice as Musicians in Healthcare.
Her independent study found results suggesting a number of things:
- the Wishing Well programme has positive effects for patients, families and caregivers
- a balance is needed between welcoming staff’s assistance in prioritising which patients should take part in the music activities and allowing the musicians to use their expertise when approaching patients, in order to achieve the most positive outcome for patients
- opportunities for musicians to practice self-care are necessary in order to avoid “burn out” and emotional trauma
- Building and strengthening relations with staff seems helpful for these types of music making programmes
Dr Haake writes, “The musicians all observed positive effects for the patients, consistent with research on the effects that music in children’s hospitals can have. These included enhancing cognitive abilities, communication skills, and physiological abilities. The parents/caregivers also responded positively to the music sessions, which is likely to have a positive effect on the child.”
The report highlights how effective music making can be in reducing the anxiety of children and young people in hospital:
“One of the nurses told us we were needed in medical ward, and that a member of the medical staff had asked for us to visit a young person who was currently having a panic attack due to pain. We arrived at the bedside and the young person was visibly distressed, with shallow rapid breathing, visible tension in the face and body, and wincing vocal sounds. A member of the medical staff was on one side of the bed and mum was on the other. The medical staff was speaking gently to the young person to try to calm him, and saying “just focus on the music”. The young person’s’ breathing became slower and more regular, and their body visibly relaxed, until they reached sleep. The medical staff thanked us after, saying “that was perfect”.
The positive effects for parents were also shown to be widespread, from helping to build positive memories and experiences of parenting as part of a child’s end of life care to helping parents grow more confident in bonding and communicating with their children in a hospital setting.
Dr Haake explains the staff worked in synergy with the musicians, recommending their patients for musical interactions and briefing the musicians on the challenges the children and families were facing. Both musicians and staff found they could work most effectively to improve the experiences of children in hospital if they worked together.
To read the full report on how Wishing Well is making a difference to the lives of children and families in hospital, head to the Wishing Well website’s new evaluation section.
A little while ago, our Wishing Well programme with people with dementia was featured on BBC South East. Shortly after, we received a very moving letter from the daughter of one of our participants, thanking us for, “giving me my Mum back, albeit briefly”. She had seen her Mum on the film, smiling gently and singing song lyrics with our musicians. Her response was subtle, but showed more engagement than her daughter had seen in many months. It brought her comfort to know that her Mum could still experience joy.
It takes skill to create a musical interaction on a busy hospital ward; to work with someone with dementia to find that song from their personal sound track that holds so much meaning for them it brings them back into the world. Our Musicians in Healthcare are all professionals. We have in depth training and a strong vocation to do this work as well as a deeply held belief that no-one is beyond the reach of music, based on personal experience of hundreds of interactions and a growing evidence base from the media and academia.
Our new short film, funded by Arts Council England and made by Sarah West of West Creative explores how we use music making to build a bridge across the anxiety and isolation that the condition causes and to help people connect with the world around them again. One Nurse described this as like “watching a flower unfurl”. I hope the film encapsulates that.
Jo White, Wishing Well Programme Manager
We had a visit recently from the amazing, Sophie Partridge who is an actor, writer and workshop artist. She is currently taking part in a mentoring programme with Drake Music and her mentor is the equally amazing, Graham Dowdall who also works with us here at Rhythmix.
As part of the mentor programme, Sophie got in touch to ask us if she could come and see Graham working on our project at Chailey Clinical Services in East Sussex. This project is part of our Youth Music funded Wishing Well programme which takes participatory music making into healthcare settings across the county. Chailey Clinical Service is a residential ward for young people with very complex health needs and disabilities. We were delighted to welcome Sophie to the project; here are her reflections (we have changed the names of the participants)
As part of my mentoring with Drake Music, I asked my mentor, Graham Dowdall if it would be possible for me to observe his sessions at Chailey Clinical. Graham’s sessions involved him working 1 to 1 with a small group of disabled young people, who varied as much in age as impairment but other than that, I wasn’t sure what to expect. That label of `profound & multiple disabilities’!
If I had a preconception about attendees of such a session at Chailey, it was that these would be disabled people who, with the best will in the world, are done “to” and “for”. Through working with Graham, I knew that the aim of the session was to provide an opportunity for people to do for themselves and that can only be a good thing. When Ben woke up, his Support Worker said “Bet you’re wondering why you’re not in bed!” (with that cold I would have wanted to be!).
This for me, this seemed an indication of how little control Ben and Jack have over their lives. To be able to exert any influence at all over their environment and activities, even if `only’ activating sound through an app, is therefore important. It is a “can” amongst the “cant’s” of a disabled person’s experience. I have no problem with all the “cant’s” in my life but I very much value my “cans” and have a feeling so do Ben and Jack. They asserted themselves in the session and through their own actions. It takes communication, trust and time between all those involved; Ben and Jack, Graham as `facilitator’ and the support workers to achieve that.
Both Ben and Jack, with what I felt to be considerable effort on both their parts, activated soundscapes through minimal hand movements across iPad screens. Although unable to hold the more ‘traditional’ instruments, Graham used them to accompany their iPad soundscapes and music was made.
At the beginning of the session, it seemed we wouldn’t take up the allotted 2 hours as there were only 2 participants but even with the health challenges encountered, challenges that are everyday occurrences for both young men and those who support them, we reached the end of that time easily.
I enjoyed the session. I think Graham, Ben and Jack and those that supported them did too. When people are nonverbal, enjoyment and satisfaction are expressed differently; eye contact, hand gesture and a smile of recognition and appreciation of someone’s presence with joint effort to access music, say just as much as words. And being able to initiate sounds & music of your own choosing! No one need be powerless or without control, devoid of pleasure or expression what-ever their needs are. I just hope Ben and Jack have these opportunities increased.
Sophie’s observations really get to the heart of Graham’s work at Chailey. This is patient, frankly quite tricky work and Graham has devoted hours and hours into a building a relationship with these young men that enables them to be creative in their own way and that allows Graham to recognise the subtle signs of engagement, experimentation and creativity. Ben and Jack are full time residents at Chailey and their opportunities to engage with people, things and ideas from the “outside world” are more limited than any of us can really understand.
But once a week, Graham arrives. Graham is a community music legend who is responsible for training most of our team here at Rhythmix, myself included (he likes to remind me that I wasn’t the best student back in the day.) His commitment to finding a way to make music with Ben and Jack is extraordinary and he does it in a way that is completely appropriate to their musical tastes. It’s a bit uncomfortable to talk gender sometimes but it’s been important for these young men to have a male figure in their lives. The staff at Chailey told us a long while back that they are surrounded by female carers, nurses and support workers. They have no other men in their lives; let alone one with whom they could make a bit of dubstep.
Our huge thanks to Sophie for visiting our work and sharing her thoughts with us. You can find out more about her work here: http://sophiepartridge.co.uk
Jo White
Programme Director for Wishing Well
Rhythmix