In this programme
MUSIC MATTERS - MUSIC AND HEALTH SPECIAL
How does music affect our brains, emotions and wellbeing?
In everyday life, music can change mood, make us feel better, relieve daily stresses and offer an escape from negativity and depression. Applied to health environments, music has an invaluable part to play in offering therapy to people suffering from many different diseases, disabilities and disorders.
Projects all over the country use music to help heal people suffering from bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, strokes and autism. Music facilitates communication and community. It is a way for those who struggle to interact through language to relate and share experience through music.
With visits to the Turtle Opera project at the Royal Opera House, which creates opera with autistic and Asperger's children; Singing for the Brain in Newbury, tapping into the associative memories of those with dementia and Alzheimer's; and SMART Music through Nordoff-Robbins, and patients past and present of the Chelsea Mental Health Centre suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and personality disorders.
To find out what actually happens in people's brains in order for music to have such a profound effect, Tom is joined by Professor Paul Robertson, leader of the Medici Quartet and Visiting Professor of Music and Medicine for the Peninsula Medical School in the South-West of England.
Dr John Zeisel, President and co-founder of the Hearthstone Alzheimer's Family Foundation and Hearthstone Alzheimer Care Ltd, offers an international perspective from New York.
And to explain the power of music to help professional musicians through illness, jazz saxophonist and composer Barbara Thompson tells the story of her battle with Parkinson's disease and how being a musician takes precedence over her illness.
You can hear Barbara perform with her group, Paraphernalia, at Ronnie Scott's on Sunday 2nd March and the premiere of her Piano Concerto Skat will be given at Cadogan Hall, London on 5th March.
For some, just listening to music on a regular basis can offer a valuable escape from the torment of mental illness. In Bristol, The Grove Road Music Group, led by Timothy Dowling changes lives through sitting together each week and concentrating on classical music. The participants' own testimonies explain how.
Whether through listening, or performing, it seems that music has a vital role to play in wellbeing.
USEFUL INFORMATION
Alzheimer's Society: works to improve the quality of life of people affected by dementia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Website:http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/index.php
Telephone: 020 7423 3500
Association of Professional Music Therapists: supports and develops the profession. The association's members are qualified Music Therapists who have undertaken a recognised post-graduate training course in Music Therapy.
Website: http://www.apmt.org/Home/tabid/68/Default.aspx
Telephone: 020 8440 4153
BBC - Health
Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/
Jessie's Fund: a UK charity helping seriously ill and disabled children by using music as a form of communication and for therapy.
Website: http://www.jessiesfund.org.uk/Frameset.htm
Telephone: 01904 658 189
Live Music Now: takes performances of the highest musical quality to a wide variety of settings across the UK, particularly to those places where experiencing music performed live is rarely part of daily life.
Website: http://www.livemusicnow.org/?pageID=80
Telephone: 020 7493 3443 (London branch)
London Arts and Health Forum: works to promote and support arts in health activity across London and nationally.
Website:http://www.lahf.com/
Telephone: 0845 602 0825
Mind: the leading mental health charity in England and Wales.
Website: http://www.mind.org.uk/
Telephone:0845 766 0163
Musical ARC: based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and provides opportunities for people to create and perform their own music, regardless of disability.
Website: http://www.musicalarc.com/idex.html
Telephone: 0113 217 2267
Music in Hospitals: mission is to improve the quality of life of adults and children with all kinds of illness and disability through the joy and therapeutic benefits of live music.
Website: http://www.music-in-hospitals.org.uk/
Telephone: 01267 242 981
Musique & Sante: a non-profit organisation advocating and working for the development of live music in hospitals and institutions for the handicapped.
Website:http://www.musique-sante.org/
Telephone: 00 33 1 55 28 81 00
Nordoff-Robbins: a charitable foundation which provides music therapy for children and adults in need, training for people who want to become music therapists or further their education, research, and fundraising for the charity.
Website:http://www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk/index.html
Telephone: 020 7267 4496
Parkinson's Disease Society: the leading charity dedicated to supporting all people with Parkinson's, their families, friends and carers.
Website: http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/
Telephone: 0808 800 0303
RNCM Music for Health Programme in conjunction with Musique et Sante (Paris): Working in partnership with healthcare staff to bring live music to the bedside in order to humanise healthcare environments for patients, staff and visitors.
Website:www.rncm.ac.uk
Telephone: 0161 907 5414
Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health: an integrated programme of research exploring the possible health benefits of active participation in music making and singing. In particular, the Centre is seeking to contribute to building an evidence base to help justify greater investment in the field of arts, wellbeing and health by NHS Trusts and local authorities.
Website:http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/centres/sidney-de-haan-research/conference/index.asp
Telephone: 01227 767700
Singing for the Brain: a group activity managed by the Alzheimer's Society West Berkshire Branch for all people with memory problems and their carers. It provides an opportunity to participate in singing sessions together, in an informal and friendly setting.
Website: http://www.singingforthebrain.org/site/index.php
Telephone: 01635 500869
The Music Therapy Charity: founded in 1969 to support Music Therapists in the UK. Its principal function is to raise money to fund the research which is intrinsic to the development and refinement of the growing body of knowledge used by the profession.
Website: http://www.musictherapy.org.uk/index2.html
Turtle Key Arts: produces, manages and devises performance arts projects with a particular emphasis on original and groundbreaking work.
Website: http://www.turtlekeyarts.org.uk/
Telephone: 020 8964 5060
