MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING - academic & researcher focus

Contributors: Dr Katey Warran, Lead and Founder of the Public Health, Arts, Theory, and Sociology Research Group, University of Edinburgh;

Dr Rebecca Bind, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London;

Lorna Greenwood, Head of Scalability, Breathe Arts Health Research.

Respondent: Prof. Rosie Perkins

About the Contributors

Dr Katey Warran is Lead and Founder of the PATHS (Public Health, Arts, Theory, Sociology) Research Group, based in the School of Health in Social Science at the University of Edinburgh, and the recipient of a Leverhulme-funded fellowship exploring how to co-construct a Sociology of Arts and Health based in the group. Her research explores the complex relationship between the arts and health, with a particular interest in processes of theorising and group engagement. Alongside her role at the University of Edinburgh, she is Honorary Fellow in the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at University College London, where she was previously Deputy Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Arts & Health. Katey is also a consultant to the WHO on arts and health, Trustee for Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland (ACHWS), member of the Research Committee at Scottish Ballet, and Co-Director of the Arts Play Health Community.

Here are the papers currently available from the WHO Europe Music and Motherhood project:

• Protocol: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/12/e063420.info
• Brief research report: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10769490/

Dr Rebecca Bind is a post-doctoral research associate in the Section of Perinatal Psychiatry in the Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology (SPI) Lab at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IOPPN), King's College London. She submitted her doctoral thesis entitled ‘The impact of antenatal depression on the mother-infant interaction, on subsequent child attachment patterns, and on child psychopathology’ and was awarded her PhD in 2020. Throughout her PhD, Rebecca worked in the SPI Lab on a longitudinal study entitled ‘Psychiatry Research and Motherhood – Depression’ (PRAM-D), which examined the effects of maternal antenatal depression on numerous domains of child development at ages 7–9. Her specific focus was on the mother-infant and subsequent mother-child relationship and how antenatal depression may interfere with developing attachment. Since completing her PhD, Rebecca has been managing a Wellcome Trust-funded clinical trial entitled ‘Scaling-Up Health Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research – Postnatal Depression’ (SHAPER-PND), which is exploring the efficacy of community singing on symptoms of postnatal depression in new mothers and their babies. Rebecca's area of interest is the mother-infant relationship and how to mitigate the impact of maternal psychopathology on the developing relationship, and thus she will investigate whether singing is an effective tool in helping the mother-infant interaction develop optimally.

• https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjpsych-open/article/motherinfant-interaction-in-women-with-depression-in-pregnancy-and-in-women-with-a-history-of-depression-the-psychiatry-research-and-motherhood-depression-pramd-study/59DE8BF034C02A739CFEC6936000C028
• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40814-022-01112-1
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453023008880?casa_token=oTshsz44eI8AAAAA:apKPiMjBpOwkYpo76olzHUftcKJc6fi2SsWmGjQEL188BFpx7WSReJsyTNj0v_Gj1yRehZE
• https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4177936/v1
• https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/11/e052133.abstract

Lorna Greenwood has worked in the arts for 15 years in various event production, project management and leadership roles. Lorna is experienced in scaling programmes in a sustainable and strategic way for individuals and communities, locally to internationally. She frequently develops and delivers talks and training packages designed to share knowledge with arts and health organisations, local authorities and most notably, the World Health Organization, on programme design, safe delivery models and evaluation. Lorna has led research partnerships with institutions such as King’s College London, co-authoring papers and writing for academic publications and books. Lorna has particular expertise in artist wellbeing, logistics and safeguarding and is Breathe’s Mental Health Champion. Lorna has also held roles at music festival promoters, the Music Publishers Association and the international charity ActionAid UK. Lorna has a BSc in Natural Sciences from the University of Bath. 

Current Research Protocols 

Bind, R.H., Estevao, C., Fancourt, D. et al. Online singing interventions for postnatal depression in times of social isolation: a feasibility study protocol for the SHAPER-PNDO single-arm trial. Pilot Feasibility Stud 8, 148 (2022). Read it here.

Estevao C, Bind R, Fancourt D, et al. SHAPER-PND trial: clinical effectiveness protocol of a community singing intervention for postnatal depression. BMJ Open 2021;11:e052133. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052133. Read it here.

Warran K, Smith C, Ugron H, et al. Scalability of a singing-based intervention for postpartum depression in Denmark and Romania: protocol for a single-arm feasibility study. BMJ Open 2022;12:e063420. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063420 . Read it here.

Published Research

Bind, R.H., Sawyer, K., Hazelgrove, K. et al. Feasibility, clinical efficacy, and well-being outcomes of an online singing intervention for postnatal depression in the UK: SHAPER-PNDO, a single-arm clinical trial. Pilot Feasibility Stud 9, 131 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-023-01360-9. Read it here.

Fancourt, D., & Perkins, R. (2018). Effect of singing interventions on symptoms of postnatal depression: Three-arm randomised controlled trial. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 212(2), 119-121. doi:10.1192/bjp.2017.29. Read it here.

 

Professor Rosie Perkins is Professor of Music, Health, and Social Science at the Royal College of Music. Based in the Centre for Performance Science, Rosie’s research investigates two broad areas within music and mental health: how music and the arts support societal wellbeing and how to enhance artists’ wellbeing and career development. Rosie has particular interest in music and parental mental health and co-leads the Music and Parental Wellbeing Research Network, which fosters novel, international, and interdisciplinary collaborations to explore the role of music in supporting parental wellbeing. Rosie’s work has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council England, British Academy, Dutch Research Council, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and has featured in a wide range of international journals and press. Rosie is an honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London and a Fellow of AdvanceHE (FHEA) and the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). In 2019, Rosie was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal College of Music.