Three Choirs Good for Mental Health
27/03/2007
Community mental health patients in the Forest of Dean have joined forces with the Three Choirs Festival. They’re taking part in special music therapy at Colliers Court, the community assessment and treatment unit in Cinderford run by Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Trust.
The therapy is a new venture known as Mindsong, funded in collaboration with the Three Choirs Festival as its first ever outreach project. The twelve weekly sessions involve groups of five elderly mentally ill people.
Under the guidance of a qualified music therapist they can choose from a range of instruments – mainly percussion like drums, cymbals, xylophone and bells, but also cello and piano. No prior musical knowledge is required.
The sessions at Colliers Court have been organized, with the support of its staff, by a retired GP Dr Anthea Holland. She is now Outreach Manager for Three Choirs Plus. Also helping with the project are volunteer singers from Gloucester Choral Society and a community arts worker. Three Choirs Plus is also running similar courses at two private care homes in Gloucester and Cirencester.
Carole Allaway Martin, a psychiatric nurse at Colliers Court, said: “Individuals with mental illness may have emotional and communication difficulties that are resistive to change. Music therapy offers a forum of self-expression that taps into the person’s innate ability to appreciate sounds and this enables the formation of new behaviours and awakens forgotten ones.”
Dr Holland said: “The Festival is reaching out and taking music to a group of people who have no opportunity to experience the benefits. There is good evidence that the therapy does work in terms of improving their emotional wellbeing, memory and quality of life and increasing their independence.”
In August, during the next Three Choirs Festival, the results of their work will feature in a special exhibition in the Cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral. It will include photographs with background recorded sound from the therapy sessions.
Restricted numbers from the media are invited to the next hour-long music therapy session at Colliers Court, Latimer Road, Cinderford on Friday 30th March, starting at 1.30pm.
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