Music in Hospitals

Music for social and communicative development...

While Art Beat has worked extensively in mental health hospital settings, Jane was also fortunate to be picked as one of four musicians from the UK to take part in a recent Eurpoean Union Leonardo Da Vinci funded 'Music in health settings' project.

This project took place across four different countries, and was led by experts in the field of music in healthcare, Musique et Sante, Paris.

Their approach differs from much work classed as 'music in hospitals', as it is intentionally interactive - tailoring the music to the needs of the patient, staff, and relatives, and seeking to involve people, rather than solely perform to them. It is also different to a workshop setting, as musicians are often mobile - enabling music to happen at the bedside, and thus involving a much wider range of patients than might normally be able to get involved.

As well as learning this approach, experience was gained in a wide variety of hospital (and cultural!) settings. These included:

Manchester: Royal Manchester Children's Hospital

  Orthopaedic, neurorehabilitation, oncology,
  secondary and tertiary wards.

Dublin: St. James' Hospital
  Oncology day treatment ward, older adult wards.

Krakow, Poland: Boni Fratres Cracoviensis Hospital
  Older adult wards, intensive care unit.

Paris: Robert Debré Hospital
  Neonatology

Paris: Institut Gustav Roussy
  Paediatric oncology unit

Having returned from these travels, Jane is keen to form further partnerships with hospitals who would like to explore the use of music as an aid to wellbeing.
Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss a project.