RMA Colloquia: Dr Brianna E Robertson-Kirkland
RMA Colloquia: Dr Brianna E Robertson-Kirkland
RMA Research Colloquia in Music: ARC Public
Date: Wednesday 22 March 2023
Time: 17:15
Venue: Studio 2, Advanced Research Centre
Category: Public lectures, Academic events, Student events
Speaker: Dr Brianna E Robertson-Kirkland
Website: www.gla.ac.uk/subjects/music/events/rmaresearchcolloquiainmusic/
Music hosts a series of colloquia on behalf of the Royal Musical Association featuring national and international guest speakers, along with staff and postgraduate students. All sessions take place in the ARC — Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre, 11 Chapel Lane, G11 6EW (see map). All sessions are free and open to the public, a warm welcome is extended to all.
Wed 22nd March, ARC Studio 2
Dr Brianna E Robertson-Kirkland (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland / University of Glasgow)
The Power of Singing for Health and Wellbeing: Scotland’s Singing for Health Network
Scotland’s Singing for Health Network (SSfHN), launched in March 2021, after being awarded a 2-year networking grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh to support a range of activities that would bring Singing for Health practitioners together with medical practitioners and researchers. The decision to form a network, which is run by Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and University of Glasgow) and Dr Sophie Boyd (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) emerged after the 2020 Spheres of Singing conference, where singing for health practitioners from across Scotland came to discuss and promote the power of singing for health. Many highlighted the frustration of working in isolation, with little access to up-to-date research, or even the opportunity to share their experiences with other practitioners working in the same field. Much of SSfHN’s activities is in response to these concerns, as well as forming connections and promoting existing singing for health projects in Scotland. Specifically, we have mapped Singing for Health groups in Scotland and have provided links to research evidencing the potential impacts singing can have on individuals, patients, service users, and singers. We hope that the map will be useful to those searching for a Singing for Health group in their area and to health professionals such as nurses, GPs, and link workers who might want to recommend a Singing for Health group. This work has led to much larger discussions regarding social prescription models and community referral programmes, and where singing for health fits into these initiatives. Evidence shows that singing, specifically singing in a group can benefit a person’s health, but can it be offered, in a formal way, as a form of social prescription? What training is offered to singing for health practitioners so that both they and the people they are working with are appropriately safeguarded? In this presentation, I will reflect on what SSfHN has achieved in the last two years and the key questions we are still investigating in relation to Singing for Health in Scotland.