Quantitative research – a reflection from The Spitz
Musicians: Arthur Lea (piano) Ben Hazleton (double bass) Kat Eaton (vocals) Nat Keen (guitar) Marcus Bonfanti (guitar) Tanya Cracknell (violin)
Back in May 2022, The Spitz provided music for the opening of the dementia-friendly lounge on Hardy Ward at Northwick Park Hospital. Bassist Ben Hazleton and saxophonist Pete Wareham underscored the ribbon-cutting by hospital dignitaries and the comings and goings of staff and patients. Our friend and first contact at Northwick Park, Matron Alex Lukjaniec had conceived of a relaxed space on the ward where dementia patients could sit, relax and feel at home, watching a film or playing a game. The sterile nature of hospital wards can sometimes exacerbate neurodegenerative conditions, increasing confusion and leading to longer stays in hospital. After much battling and planning, the lounge was open for business!
During the day, we met dementia consultant Dr Mahua Chatterjee, who had popped her head in to witness the opening of the lounge (and for a celebratory piece of cake!) She was discussing a project she had in mind about trying to quantify the impact of music on patients with dementia. Her idea was to have a bluetooth speaker in each bay and to play music for the patients for a set length of time each day. Data would be gathered on patients’ mood and wellbeing using the Gereatric Depression Score. The hypothesis being that patients’ mood would improve when they were exposed to music.
Spitz GM Thom Rowlands suggested to her that we could partner on the project and that The Spitz could provide live music, which would have a greater impact than simply playing recorded music via speakers. And so it was that on Monday 5th September, musicians Ben Hazleton and Marcus Bonfanti arrived for a 2 hour session on Hardy Ward. We’d managed to secure Ben’s services every day that week, with other musicians joining him for a duo, Monday to Friday. Hardy ward consists of 5 bays of beds, each accommodating between 4 and 6 patients, as well as side rooms for patients who are more ill or receiving palliative care. So approximately 35 patients in total.
Dr Chatterjee and her team visited each patient in turn before the musicians arrived and asked them to gauge their mood. Very bad, bad, ok, good, very good, on a scale of 1-5 (like the satisfaction surveys at the airport).
After Friday’s session with Ben Hazleton and Arthur Lea, Thom had a debrief with Dr Chatterjee and her team. While the data was still to be analysed in detail, all the indications were that the presence of music on the ward each day had led to an increase in patients’ mood, in their willingness to eat and drink and in their engagement with physiotherapy.Patients gave higher scores when asked about their mood and strikingly, many patients’ mood score remained high overnight. For example, a patient who scored 2 on Tuesday morning and 3 on Tuesday afternoon, might report a mood score of 3 on Wednesday morning, suggesting that the improvement was long-lasting and not only temporary. This was excellent news and clearly the results we’d be hoping for. So we had a week’s worth of data showing that music improves mood in hospital patients, a win for Live Music For Wellbeing and our first proper foray into clinical academia was complete! Dr Chatterjee had other ideas however…She said that as valuable as one week’s worth of data was, and it showed a strong pattern, a second week would provide exponentially more reliable data and the likelihood of being able to present and publish the study. Thom and Jane (Spitz director) then spent a frantic few hours ringing around our pool of musicians, pairing up available people and days and succeeded in providing a second week of high-quality live music for Dr Chatterjee’s study. At the end of the second week, the graph continued to go up and any anomalies were largely smoothed out by the extra data gathered.
We’re really excited to receive the final report and to understand the clinical findings. While we’ve always gathered a huge amount of anecdotal evidence about the impact of our work, this is the first time The Spitz has been part of an academic study into the impacts of music on health and wellbeing.
Patients came and went throughout the two weeks of the study. Most were pleased to have music during their stay while others were more resistant. On day one we met Patient G who, on seeing Ben and Marcus’ instruments, began shouting “no, no one wants music here, go away.” While we respected his aversion to music, we were a little saddened to not be able to bring music to the other patients in the bay. We’ve met resistant patients and residents before, and our experience is that they can often be won round with a “softly softly” approach. Winning round Patient G became our side-mission for the week. On day four, we learned that he liked musicals and asked vocalist Kat Eaton if she knew Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. A rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone later and we felt that we’d cracked it with Patient G! We met Patient S who was at the other end of the enthusiasm scale. He was more mobile than many patients on the ward and so joined the musicians every day as they travelled from bay to bay. He was clearly a music lover, regaling us with stories of gigs and bands he used to play in as well discussing the music with other patients. Nice to see this community spirit among strangers, facilitated by Spitz music.There were many wonderful moments and revelations throughout the study, too many to mention here. But the following quotes sum up the impact felt across the ward by patients and staff:
“Thanks for visiting. It’s taken the knot out of the day” – Patient A
“This is absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen those two [patients in bay D] like this before, up and smiling. It’s incredible. Honestly, we work in the bloods lab and we’ve never seen anything like this. It’s…wow…what a feeling…happy Friday in a feeling!” – Blood technician
“It’s a revival of patients’ spirit, it raises their mood. Lying in bed all day is boring, all they have to think about is their illness. Music takes their mind somewhere else, reminds them of their youth. Dancing and clapping like this is exercise of their extremities, it’s increasing blood flow”– Care Certificate Mentor
“Oh yes, more music, what a treat! Twice in one day! I don’t know how they remember all the words, but it’s wonderful. We’ve had a concert the last few days. Having those musicians in has been wonderful. Kat [Eaton] and the man with long hair [Marcus]. It’s really lifted everyone’s spirits.” – Patient B
“This is probably the most difficult ward and where help is most needed. There’s real pressure on staff and it’s where the more advanced dementia patients are. These patients get seen less often because each person takes longer to deliver care to. Having music on the ward is great, it puts you in a good mood and it’s easier to deliver care. When we walk round you can just see all the nurses like “thank god”. When you’re [the care-giver] in a bad mood it rubs off on the patients and vice versa. It creates a spiral of attunement. Music provides a rest and a break. Mood and vibe last much much longer with dementia sufferers than actual memories do.” – Activity co-ordinator
“This is one of my father’s favourite songs, it’s put me in such a good mood”– Nurse Shikha
Find out more about The Spitz and contact the team here.
