Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Professor of Movement Disorders and Neurology
Progamme Lead – Arts, Health & Wellbeing
Professor of Neurobiology of Psychosis, IoPPN Vice Dean (International)
Director of Engagement, English National Ballet
Head of Programmes at Breathe Arts Health Research
Postdoctoral Research Associate & Clinical Project Manager
Associate Professor, Behavioural Science and Health at UCL
Creative Director of Rosetta Life
Professor of Rehabilitation Research at St George's University of London and Kingston University
Professor of Biological Psychiatry
PhD Research Fellow in Clinical Neuroscience
Professor of Implementation Science and Patient Safety
Dance for Parkinson's
Dance for Parkinson’s is a 12-week programme designed and delivered by the English National Ballet (ENB). It is inspired by ENB’s repertory and delivered within a professional dance environment with live music for People with Parkinson’s (PwP), their family, friends and carers. The model has been replicated nationally (albeit on a small scale) through five hub partnerships over six years. The programme is structured much in the same way as a ballet class, progressing from a seated/standing warm-up at the barre, and progressing to movement sequences across the space, developing dance material and ending with a group cool down. Previous research has demonstrated that ENB’s Dance for Parkinson’s is of value to participants, particularly emotionally, socially, and artistically. However, the number of randomised clinical trials of dance investigating gains in both motor and non-motor symptoms remains low. To date, no published work has focused on ballet as an intervention for Parkinson’s disease. Equally, there has been no research using wearable sensors for the assessment of motor gains following a dance-based intervention. Our research aims to address this important gap in the evidence base. We plan to conduct a randomised controlled clinical trial investigating the role of ballet dancing as an adjuvant therapy in PD, as assessed by a range of validated clinical outcome measures and objective wearable sensors.
Delivery team: Fleur Derbyshire-Fox, Alison Hartley (English National Ballet)
Research Team: K.Ray Chaudhuri, Aleksandra (Ola) Podlewska, Katarina Rukavina.
English National Ballet
Melodies for Mums with Postnatal Depression
Melodies for Mums is a programme based in Lambeth and Southwark providing 10-week singing and music sessions for mothers with postnatal depression (PND) and their babies in community Children’s Centres. It tackles a challenging mental health condition for which there are currently no adequate solutions due to low uptake of medication and therapy in this population. Studies led by Dr Rosie Perkins and Dr Fancourt have demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing symptoms of PND faster than usual care or social groups, and preliminary process evaluations have suggested its suitability. It has also been identified as a strong way of engaging mothers from minority backgrounds who are less likely to seek professional support for their mental health post-birth. The arts component was initially developed by the Royal College of Music and is now delivered by the award-winning arts organisation Breathe Arts Health Research. The programme has reached over 300 mothers to date across Lambeth and Southwark. Through this programme, we will conduct a two-arm randomised controlled trial involving 400 mothers. Participants will be allocated to either the 10-week singing intervention or a wait-list control group on a 2:1 ratio stratified by age of baby and severity of postnatal depression. The wait-list group will be offered the intervention after 12 weeks, so that all participants will eventually receive it.
Delivery Team: Hannah Dye, Tim Osborn, Katherine Penney (Breathe Arts Health Research).
Research Team: Paola Dazzan, Daisy Fancourt (UCL), Carmine Pariante, Carolina Estevao, Rebecca Bind, Lavinia Rebecchini, Katie Hazelgrove, Kristi Sawyer, Manomani Manoharan (SLaM), Alexandra Burton (UCL).
Breathe Arts Health Research
Stroke Odysseys
Stroke Odysseys is a post stroke performance arts intervention designed and delivered by arts organisation Rosetta Life within two London boroughs. The Stroke Odysseys intervention, initially developed and funded by King’s and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity, aims to improve recovery, agency and well-being after stroke. The performance arts centre on communication of experiences to an audience through acquired skills in movement, music, song and the spoken word. In the hospital setting, sessions run for 60minutes weekly for groups of 6-8 participants on neuro rehabilitation wards. In the community, there is then a follow-on twelve-week performance intervention where participants devise a dance and music performance work from their own stories. After the performance is completed, participants are invited to a training programme where they learn to act as advocates (“Stroke Ambassadors”) for life after stroke. Stroke Ambassadors then support artists in hospitals, befriend the newly discharged patients and take part in small scale performance tours to hospital wards, care homes and community centres to challenge the perception of disability. The team has undertaken preliminary research demonstrating benefits for perceptions of disability, cognition, mobility, and speech disabilities, but more in-depth research is needed. We will conduct a single-arm study with no control group. The existing pool of stroke ambassadors is 20 people, so this will be increased three-fold for this project to 60 new individuals.
Delivery Team: Lucinda Jarrett, Jennie Sweeney (Rosetta Life), Kevin Murphy (Wall2Wall Music).
Research Team: Nick Ward (UCL), Fiona Jones (SGUL), Caroline Ellis-Hill (Univ. Bournemouth), Carolina Estevao.
Rosetta Life
Implementation Science
The research aim of this programme is to explore the clinical, implementation and cost effectiveness of the above mentioned interventions. The specific objectives are to understand the extent to which the interventions are perceived to be acceptable, appropriate and feasible to key stakeholders and to understand the extent to which the interventions are delivered and received as intended.
We will utilise a three-pronged Hybrid Type II Effectiveness-Implementation evaluation to be consistently applied across all three interventions with the aim of discovering the 'active ingredient" of each intervention and producing a blue-print for others to follow in other settings.
Research Team: Nick Sevdalis, Ioannia Bakolis, Rachel Davis, Tayana Soukup-Ascensao, Andy Healey, Carolina Estevao.
Centre for Implementation Science
Estevao, C., Fancourt, D., Dazzan, P., Chaudhuri, K., Sevdalis, N., Woods, A., Crane, N., Bind,R., Sawyer, K., Rebecchini, L., Hazelgrove, K., Manoharan, M., Burton, A., Dye, H., Osborn, T., Jarrett, L., Ward, N., Jones, F., Podlewska, A., Premoli, I., Derbyshire-Fox, F., Hartley, A., Soukup, T., Davis, R., Bakolis, I., Healey, A., Pariante, C. (2021). Scaling-up Health-Arts Programmes: The largest study in the world bringing arts-based mental health interventions into a national health service. BJPsych Bulletin, 45(1), 32-39. doi:10.1192/bjb.2020.122
Carolina Estevao, Rebecca Bind, Daisy Fancourt, Kristi Sawyer, Paola Dazzan, Nick Sevdalis, Anthony Woods, Nikki Crane, Lavinia Rebecchini, Katie Hazelgrove, Manonmani Manoharan, Alexandra Burton, Hannah Dye, Tim Osborn, Rachel Davis, Tayana Soukup, Jorge Arias De La Torre, Ioannis Bakolis, Andy Healey, Rosie Perkins, Carmine M. Pariante. The SHAPER-PND trial: clinical effectiveness protocol of a community singing intervention for postnatal depression. BMJ open (Vol.11, issue 11)-http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052133(2021).
WHO Panorama people - Interview with Dr Tony Woods- Public Health Panorama - Volume 6, Issue 1, March 2020.
Brain Odysseys Handbook - Lucinda Jarrett - Stroke Odysseys Recovering Hope shares the findings from a decade of working with stroke communities and offers a model of how to set up similar programmes in other localities.
Blogs
Carmine Pariante. Let’s kick off the world’s largest study into arts and health! Inspire the Mind. https://bit.ly/3pkg7Mb
Rebecca Bind. Can maternal depression before birth influence the mother-infant relationship? Inspire the Mind. https://bit.ly/3ps4FOq
Maria Antonietta Nettis. Inspiring Women: Baroness Deborah Bull and how the arts can support science. https://bit.ly/3jgpp8g
I LOOK FOR THE THINK - An online opera imagining life after stroke during lockdown. A 12 minute online opera from Rosetta Life Stroke Ambassadors and Garsington Opera Adult Community Chorus. Composer Orlando Gough. Libretto by Lucinda Jarrett and Chris Rawlence, from the words and experiences of the Stroke Community, who also perform.
Forget-me-Nots: The latest film from Rosetta Life, made online with an incredible group of people living with the effects of brain injury. Personal reflections & original songs, scenes exploring memory.
Dance for Parkinson's: Patterns of Perception with Central Saint Martins -English National Ballet -Film Footage courtesy of Central Saint Martins, from the Patterns of Perception project in collaboration with University College London and Ruairiadh O'Connell.
Dance for Parkinson's: Senseless Kindness - English National Ballet. English National Ballet's regular Dance for Parkinson's classes have taken place via Zoom throughout the pandemic. This class was inspired by the new work Senseless Kindness, one of five original dance films created for ENB's Digital Season in 2020. Senseless Kindness was choreographed by Yuri Possokhov and directed by Thomas James.