Patients hit the right note

December 19, 2018

Featured in The Phoenix Newspaper:

Respiratory patients were full of Christmas joy when they took part in their first “Singing for Breathing” session.
The group of seven patients, who suffer from a range of lung conditions, gave tuneful renditions of Jingle Bells and While Shepherds Watched – led by Louise Blackburn, who has been trained as a Singing for Breathing practitioner by the British Lung Foundation.
The 45-minute session was organised by the Community Respiratory team from Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, to help patients improve their lung health.
Louise said: “I find that people with lung conditions benefit greatly from these sessions. The magic of Singing for Breathing is that it is not only good physically and socially, but also a huge benefit for those patients with lung conditions.”
Teresa Brigden, is a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who attended the session. She said: “This has been brilliant. It’s the first time that I have sang in public, I normally just sing at home behind closed doors.
“But I felt very comfortable in the session today and really enjoyed it. I will definitely be coming again as I feel it’s benefited my condition too.”
The sessions start with a warm-up to prepare the patient’s body for activity. This includes physical warm-ups, breathing and vocal exercises, such as rhythm and pitch games. They then go on to sing around two to three songs.
Alice Harvey, Respiratory Clinician, added: “It was a fantastic first session. The patients really enjoyed singing Christmas songs after some fun warm-up exercises.
“You can see straight away how it benefits their health, but also how it helps socially too. An added benefit is that our staff have really enjoyed taking part, learning new techniques to support patients in managing their breathlessness, and helping our own wellbeing.
“We have part-funded the sessions by using our Your Trust Charity funding.  It means that patients are able to enjoy this great benefit to their health and wellbeing.”
Over the last 10 years, researchers have looked at how the body and mind respond to music, and have explored ways of using music to help care for health. There’s increasing evidence that singing regularly as part of a group is good for a person’s general health and wellbeing.

Also featured in the Birmingham Mail.