Developments

Clowndoctors Songlines

Clowndoctors Songlines is our term for the music and storytelling activities that we have developed for children who are blind or visually impaired, or children who have brain injuries.  Health care staff have told us that the Songlines activities have noticeably increased the benefits that the Clowndoctors offer to such children, and indeed that the approach is beneficial to children with a wider range of disabilities.

The Songlines project started in August 2003 with a six-month period of research, development and training, in which Hearts&Minds combined its existing musical skills with the knowledge of a music therapist and a music educationalist.  Having created a bank of Songlines activities, our team started to deliver these activities in February 2004.  Since then, they have continued to develop and refine the approach, and Songlines has become part of the core Clowndoctors repertoire. 

Many Songlines activities come from translating an activity that is very visual (such as slapstick) into activities that a child listens to (sound slapstick). Examples of activities include:  hide and seek with sounds and instruments; control games using musical and sound cues rather than visual cues; sing child names in different styles (opera, reggae); storytelling; soundscapes.

Clowndoctors in Aberdeen and Inverness

In January 2006, we expanded our Clowndoctors programme to the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, providing two visits per week. In Autumn 2005, we recruited and trained two new Clowndoctors who are based in the Aberdeenshire area to deliver these visits.   Additionally, the Children’s Ward at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness now receive three visits per year from the Clowndoctors. 

These are extremely exciting developments as these visits will enable us to benefit more children from Aberdeen, Grampian, the Highlands, Orkney and Shetland.  We are also delighted to be benefiting children at all three of Scotland’s paediatric hospitals.

Funding from the National Programme for Improving Scotland’s Mental Health and Well-being

In July 2005, Hearts&Minds was awarded funding from the Scottish Executive’s National Programme for Improving Scotland’s Mental Health and Well-being.  The majority of this funding is directed at the development and delivery of a specialist adaptation of the Clowndoctors programme for children and young people with mental health problems, which will be independently evaluated.  This funding is also enabling us to develop our artistic training materials and to investigate the potential for formal accreditation of our training.