Abstract

Over the past 20 years a significant international research literature on singing and health has developed. Research on singing for health involves researchers from many different disciplines including music psychology, music therapy, health promotion and public health, occupational therapy, and biomedicine.

Singing has been shown to contribute to well-being and quality of life and can have a positive impact on the management of long-term conditions, and in reduce depression, anxiety, and stress. There are many singing programmes in the UK targeted at specific health conditions including respiratory problems, Parkinson’s, COPD, dementia, stroke, and mental health conditions. Health care professionals are referring patients to singing for health activities as part of the growth of social prescribing.

Music practitioners leading singing groups are keen to know more about how singing for health impacts on people and how to use research to improve their practice. Health and social care professionals who commission and refer to singing for health projects want to know more about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of singing for health practice.
The need for better communication between researchers, practitioners, health professionals and commissioners, led Emily Foulkes, to set up the ‘Singing for Health Network Cornwall.’ The interest generated by this local network resulted in the creation of a national on-line ‘Singing for Health Network’ in June 2020.

This is application seeks funding for an academic research network on singing for health. The project will be led from the International Centre for Community Music (ICCM), York St John University. ICCM has an established record of research on diversity in community music and is currently leading an international community music project. Research is ongoing on with women’s singing groups in prisons, community singing groups for young people with mental health challenges, older people affected by dementia, and members of LGBTQ+ choirs.

The project will be supported by researchers in the singing for health field at the University of Exeter and the Royal College of Music in the UK. UK researchers are at the forefront of research to explore the therapeutic value of singing for mental health and wellbeing, and physical health conditions including Stroke, Parkinson’s and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Building a strong singing for health research and practice community is particularly needed at this time when the singing community has been severely affected by the pandemic. There is also interest currently in the idea that group singing could be of therapeutic benefit for people affected by long COVID syndromes.

The proposed network will allow researchers to come together to review the evidence basis on singing for health; to support diversity and inclusivity in research; to create guidelines for evidence-informed practice, and to establish consensus on priorities for future, cross-disciplinary research.