Sing a song for health

The curative power of music is channelled at
the Douglas Hospital’s Wellington Centre choir

VOICES RAISED TOWARD A COMMON GOAL:
Wellington Centre choir at practice

by JULIE MASIS

People with schizophrenia and severe depression singing in a choir? It is possible that no psychiatrist has prescribed this treatment before.

But the Douglas Mental Health University Institute’s Wellington Centre organized just such a singing ensemble this winter—and, therapists hope, it will help the centre’s clients recover and readjust to life in the outside world.

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, nine people ranging in age from their mid-20s to late-50s stood in the Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs Church in Verdun and sang together about strawberry fields and about the first note in the solfège (“do,” as in, “doe, a deer, a female deer”).

Some have never been in a choir before. For others, it brought back childhood memories.

“It cheers me up,” says choir participant José, 56. “I forget about (the mental illness) and I sing.”

Gerry, 57, who suffers from depression, says he enjoys the chorus because it requires him to be with other people and because he likes hearing the sound of his own voice. “Especially at church—the acoustics are fantastic, you know,” he says, adding that, “it’s a challenge to see if I can do well in the group.”

In fact, singing has real benefits for people with mental illness, according to the Douglas Hospital’s music therapist Jacqueline Cohen (M.T.–B.C.), who admits she’d never heard of a chorus of mentally ill people.

“It releases endorphins in the brain, it improves mental concentration and it helps the two hemispheres to synchronize their functioning,” she says.

Singing together is even better, she says. “It helps especially those who are mentally ill, who have difficulty socializing with others—it puts them in a situation where they’re working together toward a common goal.”

That’s exactly what the Wellington Centre’s choir did.

At the practice, they stand in a circle and exercise their voices together, humming the same tune higher and lower. They pass the notes back and forth. They ask questions. They breathe in together. They move their arms to the beat. Someone snorts like a pig and someone else urges their neighbour to sing louder.

The choir is being led by Aya Aikawa, a veteran choir director, who met Wellington Centre rehabilitation assistant Justyna Dawidowicz at a party. Dawidowicz suggested that she start a choir at the centre. Aikawa, who is leading a chorus of people with mental health problems for the first time in her life, says she asked the participants to choose the songs they like. Religious hymns such as “Amazing Grace” and popular groups like the Beatles came up. So far, they’ve studied “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Do Re Mi,” the tune from the Sound of Music that Maria uses to teach the notes to the children, and a calming song called “Simple Gifts,” a 19th-century composition by a member of the religious Shaker sect in the U.S. It starts like this: “’Tis a gift to be simple, ‘Tis a gift to be free/‘Tis a gift to come down where you want to be…”

After their third chorus rehearsal, Aikawa says they are ready to perform the song.

“They are so talented, but they underestimate their ability,” she says.

A performance will be scheduled in the spring.

But Singing also works for everyone—Cohen advises that it will cheer you up if you’re feeling down. “You sing when you’re happy, but you should sing when you’re sorrowful,” she says. “The best thing to do is to sing sad songs.”