Ex Cathedra

Ex Cathedra developed an initiative Singing Pathways to bring the therapeutic and well-being benefits of singing to stroke patients, by working weekly at the Stroke Unit of Solihull Hospital. Using specially developed ways of engaging and enabling participants to sing, the sessions enable many stroke patients who are unable to speak, to sing. Some patients also seem to have their speech liberated for a short period after a session. The project has become a very important part of the week on the Stroke Unit for patients and staff, with staff even occasionally changing a diagnosis from participating with and observing the patients during the singing sessions.

For the last 15 years Ex Cathedra a charity about singing, through its pioneering Singing Medicine projects bring wellbeing through singing to children and adults, both in hospital and at home. These projects helped combat isolation, as well as supporting the improvement of the mental health and well-being of hospitalized children, but once the pandemic ensued the usual weekly visits stopped. In an extraordinary piece of timing, UK leading choir Ex Cathedra was working with Singing Medicine patients and Birmingham Children’s Hospital Chaplaincy team before anyone had heard of coronavirus, to create what is thought to be the world’s first hospital-wide children and young people’s virtual patient choir, called the Lifting Spirits Choir. They are making interactive singing-play films for children and young people, over 130 Singing Medicine interactive films are available, free to access on YouTube, for the patients, and for all young children and families everywhere.