The post PAM Rounds: CPD From UCL Performing Arts Medicine appeared first on BAPAM.

Although we miss the opportunity to gather in person at our Performing Arts Medicine Training Days, our new series of focused online CPD sessions benefits our community by enabling wider access to a flexible ongoing programme.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a hugely disruptive impact on everyone who works or studies in the performing arts, and we held our first session in October exploring perspectives on the health of performance professionals during lockdown. It was chaired by Dr Hara Trouli, Musculoskeletal Doctor and Course Lead for UCL’s ground-breaking Performing Arts Medicine MSc.

BAPAM CEO, Claire Cordeaux, spoke of our experience of patients’ struggles with loss of work and worries about sustaining their career, impacts on creativity and identity, and feelings of demotivation. Our case mix changed – fewer work-related musculoskeletal problems, and a considerable increase in people presenting with mental health problems (up from 15% to 26% of total cases). Of these, around a third of people presented with moderate to severe mental health problems (previously 12%). We’ve also seen an increase in the proportion of performance professionals contacting us with other kinds of complex ongoing health needs, some of whom have been unable to access NHS services temporarily closed due to the pandemic. In vocal health care, we provided an interim service providing advice from Ä¢¹½tv Vocal Rehabilitation Coaches while patients waited for diagnostic assessments at temporarily closed Voice Clinics.

We were determined to adapt our clinical and health education services to support patients and the wider performing arts community through lockdown. We switched to remote consultations (our next CPD session takes a deep dive into the pros and cons of remote performing arts medicine) and introduced a new online peer support initiative in the form of our Community Drop-in Sessions. BAPAM GP, Dr Pippa Wheble, gave the next talk on these peer support sessions, which she facilitated weekly, with guest experts covering topics such as mental skills training, motivation and self-care, as well as a session sharing Pippa’s own expertise in breathing techniques. Participants valued connecting with peers and the opportunity to shift perspective from career stress to a focus on healthy creative practice skills for lockdown and beyond. The sessions are good reminders of my ‘worth’ and ‘value’ and give practical tips in improving a creative life.

Dr Finola Ryan, Specialist Registrar in Occupational Medicine and Honorary Performing Arts Medicine Lecturer at UCL, spoke about the BAPAM risk assessment guidance for freelance musicians as they return to work during the pandemic.

We were honoured to welcome Lucinda Halstead M.D., Otolaryngologist and President of the (PAMA) in America, to close the session. It was fascinating to hear about the measures she had taken in order to carry on working safely in her voice clinic during the pandemic, and the findings of recent research into aerosol spray and COVID-19 transmission for specific instruments. She explained how she had learned from this to increase safety in her own clinical practice.

We thoroughly enjoyed the wider discussion that followed each presentation and it was great to get our CPD programme underway. Sessions continue on the last Wednesday of every month (except December) from 19:00 GMT. We explore key topics in current performing arts medicine practice and share unique insights into performance health and wellbeing. The approach is multidisciplinary: physiological and psychological care, preventing as well as treating problems, supporting healthy and sustainable creative practice.

Find out more about future sessions and book your place here

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This group, whose inaugural meetings took place in 2018, opens up the conversation between performing arts and psychological practice. It is developing a growing professional network for counselling, coaching and psychology practitioners who work with performing artists of all kinds. The group meets regularly, roughly every 8 weeks, in central London.

As well as discussing clinical cases and case issues, there is interactive exploration, mutual consultation and support on more general professional practice issues, including ethical issues, boundary and confidentiality areas. Such exchanges of expertise and experience enable members to reflect on and refine best practice in working with performers. The Group offers members the chance to share Ä¢¹½tv expertise of particular problem areas and to provide interventions, guidance, information and professional support within a rigorous evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence framework in this developing field. The Group acts as a forum not only for encouraging and developing the highest standards of practice but also for identifying, promoting and supporting new research in the field.

Members of the group use a variety of approaches and come from a range of career backgrounds. Some members bring Ä¢¹½tv expertise within the field, for example,Ìýworking with people in particular arts professions or with certain types of problem. The Group is sensitive to BAME, LGBT+ and other dimensions of difference.

It is hoped that specialised supervision of this type will become available and accessible to many more practitioners on the BAPAM Directory and the Group is keen to encourage this in whatever ways it can. Members are happy to offer advice and suggestions to practitioners wanting to start their own peer supervision group and to find ways of welcoming practitioners new to the Directory to join.

Practitioners interested in finding out more, joining the London group or starting a group of their own are invited to contact Dr Carol Chapman by email atÌýcarol@carolchapman.co.uk.Ìý

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What would an ideal performance environment look like? Is such a thing even possible when we work in such widely different spaces? How do our environments affect our health, our creativity, our social relationships? What can healthcare professionals, technicians, artists, support organisationsÌýand communities do to both support performing arts wellbeing and facilitate excellence in artistic practice?

OurÌýPerformance EnvironmentÌýDay explores these topics, from a healthcare perspective and including the experiences of other professionals including artists, technicians, educators and people working in arts support roles, some with additional needs due to illness, injury, difference or disability

You can now read the fullÌýprogramme.

The event takes place atÌýÌýon November 17, 9.30 – 17.00.

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Presentations and Discussion

The Performance Environment: Challenges in the Performing Arts Industry
, Specialist Performing Arts and Sport Physiotherapist

Saving Your Ears for the Music!
ÌýandÌý, Clinical Audiologists and Hearing Therapists

Preparing for Challenging Performance Careers
Arran Peck, Athletic Development and Conditioning Coach,Ìý

Cognitive Function of Adult Amateur Pianists
Dr Marie McKavanagh, GP,ÌýÌýShipley Rudge Award Winner

Anxiety and Psychological Support for Theatre Productions and Artists
, Chartered Clinical Psychologist

Panel Discussion/Q&A

Do our performance environments facilitate or obstruct artistic practice? How can the ways in which we design, manage, use and share space be a positive factor in healthy practice? Collective support in creative communities, accessibility and participation.

, Musician/Producer
Robin Townley, CEOÌý
Lisa Tregale, Head ofÌý, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Siân Willett, Co-creator ofÌý

Dan Hayhurst, BAPAM Information Coordinator (Chair)

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The BAPAM training session organised by theÌýÌýwill take place at the Scottish Trades Union Centre in Glasgow on 13^thÌýSeptember. It will cover essential skills for enhancing vocal performance with the aim of giving tools and skills needed to succeed and thrive in music careers.

As a manager Lucy Heyman has worked with a range of artists including some of the UK’s biggest names, so has a real understanding of the trials and tribulations a performer goes through.

The topics she will cover include vocal techniques and warm-ups, preparation for performance and psychological skills for optimal performance.

BAPAM’s healthy performance training sessions are designed to avoid health problems which are often encountered in the course of an arts career and are led by the experts in the field. To enquire about booking a BAPAM training session emailÌýinfo@bapam.org.uk

We also run free medical assessing clinics for performing artists in Glasgow every month. (Next one is 5th October) To register as a patient and book an appointment call our helpline on 0207 404 8444/5888

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