Young people struggling with their mental health are being encouraged to use music as a tool for recovery with one person describing th life-changing impact it is having on her.

Cygnet Hospital on Buller Street, Bury, is offering a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), recently introducing a programme called ‘Music 2 Empower’, aiming to provide music sessions for service users and give them studio time to record.

Allie, a keen acoustic guitarist and service user has said that the initiative has been life-changing.

Growing up in a musical family where her mum sings classical opera and her dad studied the harpsichord, she self-taught how to play the guitar and said it became a “passion project”.

She said: “Coming to a psych ward, its’s scary and new.

“It seems so alien. Listening to music, sharing it and playing it, it bridges a gap and allows you to bond over something.

“Music is so important, if you look on any patient safety plan they’ll have listening to music as a distraction at least.

“One of my go to distractions if I’m struggling is to play my guitar.

 “It brings people together. It allows you to be creative. Just free time where you can escape, go with the flow and forget about everything else.

“A lot of the times it’s hard to put yourself out there – it’s really anxiety inducing. But when someone gives you that opportunity it opens up a door that wouldn’t happen if projects like this didn’t exist.”

Cygnet Health Care launched the ‘Music 2 Empower’ initiative on World Mental Health Day 2019 and has since rolled out the programme across its hospitals.

The goal is to support music therapy-related projects throughout the organisation and allow service users like Allie to showcase their abilities, give hope, inspire others and benefit from psychologically.

Staff at the hospital have often collaborated with the young people, Lead CAMHS consultant at Cygnet Health Care, Dr Laurie Van Niekerk, said: “Music is a great unifier and healer. It is really important to embrace those talents in the young people we support.

“When they’re involved with the music, they can’t stop smiling. They had lost that side of things and it’s reminding them of their talent.

“It is so enjoyable to do something different together.  There’s clear growing evidence music can help with anxiety so it should absolutely form part of the range of therapies that we offer.”

Dr Tony Romero, CEO of Cygnet Health Care, added that he was proud to see the impact Music 2 Empower is having across Cygnet’s services.

He said: “Music can be a powerful agent for change. Being creative and expressing yourself through music is an important outlet for many of our service users.

“Although our connection to music can be incredibly personal, projects like Music 2 Empower allow our service users who have shared experiences to come together and experience the benefits of being around like-minded individuals.

“Music is an important tool which can bring a renewed sense of purpose, achievement and motivation to reach personal recovery goals and ultimately this can have a hugely positive impact on mental wellbeing.

“Hearing from directly from service users about the life-changing impact this initiative is having on them and their recovery is very inspiring and I look forward to seeing more services benefit from the project.”

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