Chroma, the UK’s leading national provider of arts therapies, continues its successful Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) project at Voyage Care homes for its third consecutive year.
Voyage Care is a sector-leading provider, with over 30 years’ experience of specialist care and support. They support over 3,500 people with learning disabilities, autism, brain injuries and other complex needs across the UK.
They have recently developed a new 24 bedded flagship rehab service in Ardwick, Manchester, where they are looking to introduce an art therapist soon, and are progressing with new services in Scotland, Ellesmere Port and South Gloucestershire too.
Their 18-rehabilitation services work with multi-disciplinary teams to rehabilitate and provide on-going care and support for people with brain injuries and complex clinical needs. The collaborative process between these teams at Voyage Care encourages, educates and supports people to take control of their lives after a brain injury and regain their independence.
Evie Mason, a Neurologic Music Therapist for Chroma, has been delivering one-to-one NMT sessions to up to 5 residents at both the Tewkesbury and Bristol Voyage Care rehabilitation homes since 2018. She utilises NMT techniques to help these residents improve their speech and movement.
Evie said: “The most marked impact I have seen over the past two years has been in the speech work. I work intensively with haemorrhagic stroke and traumatic brain injury victims, and NMT has significantly helped these residents develop and re-learn speech. The musical properties of melody and rhythm immediately help the brain find new neural pathways to bypass the damaged areas of the brain. It’s really exciting to witness!”
“I also use Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation to guide movements and balance. When a client is neurologically linked into a beat and tempo, it can really help with walking practice, so after assessing a client’s speed of walking, we carefully select a song for them to walk to, using RAS as a way to help them with their motor-planning and execution, thus improving their balance and gait.”
Louise Houghton, ABI placements manager at Voyage Care, said: “Both Chroma and ourselves believe in person-centred rehabilitation. Our aim, when deciding to work with Chroma two years ago, was, and remains to be, to further support our residents’ independence, build confidence and improve the outcomes for those living with brain injuries. The partnership works – for us, but most importantly, for our residents.”
Daniel Thomas, Managing Director at Chroma said “The future here is exciting. We continue to deliver specialised NMT techniques to residents on a one-to-one basis with the outlook of undertaking new group work sessions, which we believe will help further promote rehab engagement, whilst simultaneously providing residents with a support network, developing their social awareness.”
Chroma continues to help Voyage Care residents with a brain injury to achieve their goals, promote independent living and help re-build their confidence.