Service users and staff in Wakefield hit the right note

Thanks to help from Trust’s Innovations Fund, service users, carers and staff have joined together and formed a choir to boost wellbeing at Fieldhead, Wakefield.

The project is supported by the Trust’s Creative Minds initiative, which encourages creative approaches to service delivery and offers local and voluntary organisations the chance to work alongside the Trust to deliver a variety of projects.

The choir, led by music-based charity Hoot, will provide service users, carers and staff with an opportunity to come together to enjoy singing. Joining a choir has a number of positive health and wellbeing benefits including decreased stress levels, increased mood, improved posture and increased social skills.

Paula Rylatt, specialist practitioner at the Trust explained, “The choir is a great opportunity for people who use Trust services and staff to come together. Along with the health benefits, the project will also provide an opportunity to promote better connections and understanding between service users and staff.

“Eventually, we hope that the choir will evolve and be able to sing at community venues in and outside of the Trust.”

The choir will officially launch at Fieldhead on Thursday 4 July and will take place once a week. After six months of sessions, service users will be invited to train as ‘choir leaders’ and will receive special training in order to sustain the activity in the future.

Find out more about Creative Minds and how you can get involved at www.creativemindsuk.com