Archive for the ‘Research’ Category

BAPAM Newsletter February 2012

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Our current Newsletter is available to download in pdf format here:

BAPAM Newsletter February 2012

You can subscribe to the Newsletter by putting your email address in the box to the right of this page.

Musicians’ Dystonia Research – Call for Participants

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Are you a musician with focal hand dystonia?

An NHS team co-ordinated by Dr Mark Edwards (who is also Neurology Advisor to BAPAM) is conducting research into musicians’ dystonia. A number of exciting projects with the aims of better understanding this condition, and hopefully developing new treatments, are currently running.

The team are recruiting enthusiastic musicians for a retraining programme to help establish the most effective treatment strategy.  The studies will be conducted at the Institute of Neurology in Queen Square, London which is a leading UK establishment in dystonia research. The work is co-ordinated by Senior Lecturer Dr Mark J Edwards and two PhD students, Dr Anna Sadnicka and Dr Panagiotis Kassavetis. At this time the team is specifically recruiting musicians with dystonia affecting the hand.

If you have this form of dystonia and are interested in taking part in studies (or if you are healthy and wish to register as a healthy volunteer) or have further questions please contact: Dr Mark Edwards, Sobell Department, 33 Queen Square, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, WC1N 3BG.

Or email Dr Edwards via: m.j.edwards@ucl.ac.uk.

Note: BAPAM is not involved with organising or overseeing this project.

Patrice Berque wins Movement Research Award

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Physiotherapist and former professional horn player, Patrice Berque, has been awarded the Susanne Klein-Vogelbach Special Award 2011 for his paper, A combination of constraint-induced therapy and motor control retraining and motor control retraining in the treatment of focal hand dystonia in musicians (Medical Problems of Performing Artists, vol.25:149-161).

The prize is awarded to researchers in neuroscience, orthopaedics, and anatomy whose work is oriented to a better understanding of the underlying principles of human movement and its rehabilitation, with the Special Award being granted to excellent papers from the field of physiotherapy. Movement in this context is not restricted to locomotion, rather it covers all kinds of muscular-induced human movement including mime and music. This is only the third time the Special Award has been given (it was previously won in 2004 and 2010).

Medical practitioners involved in research may be interested in applying for the award in future years. There are 2 prizes: the Main Award, endowed with (Swiss Francs) CHF 10,000 and the Special Award, endowed with CHF 2,000. The submission deadline for this year’s prize is 30 September 2012. Click here for more detailed information (Word doc).

Stage Fright, Well-being and Recovery Survey Results

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

We had a fantastic response to our request for help with Danica Giles’ Stage Fright and Well-being Survey. Huge thanks to all the performers who took part – 260 in all, of whom 167 were BAPAM patients!

This summary of the results of the study contains some demographic information on the participants, followed by brief explanations of the assumptions tested and the results.

The last part contains the interpretation of the results. Danica has tried to turn the rather theoretical findings into as many practical tips as possible and has also referred to previous research.

If you are not interested in all the details, just skip to the very last page with a summary of all
recovery tips!

Download the results here.

Research Report 2009 – 2011

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

BAPAM’s mission is to achieve a healthy performance environment for all performing artists through high quality and effective specialist health care, health promotion strategies, and professional development and training in Performing Arts Medicine for health care practitioners.

BAPAM Trustee, Dr Deborah Charnock, has been responsible for helping BAPAM develop a programme of evaluation and research to underpin this mission.

This report summarises evaluation and research activities and outcomes at BAPAM since the establishment of the Service Evaluation and Research Advisory Group (SERAG). The outcomes have informed several recommendations relating to governance, operations and future research which are outlined in the report. A draft research work programme for 2011-13 is also included.

Download the report:

Research Report 2009-2011

Requests for further information relating to this report should be directed to Dr Deborah Charnock via deborah@bapam.org.uk

BAPAM Counselling and Psychotherapy Services Survey

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Dr Carol Chapman is a counselling psychologist and performance coach, and works as a BAPAM practitioner. Dr Chapman has recently taken the lead on our research into psychological and mental health issues affecting performing artists and the development of appropriate services and treatments for this special group.

Dr Chapman is currently conducting a survey of the amount, scope and treatment modalities currently being employed by counselling and psychotherapy practitioners on the BAPAM Directory. We are also interested to hear from practitioners who are not currently associated with BAPAM.

Practitioners are being asked to complete a brief, anonymous questionnaire covering details of professional practice, experience with performing artists, and views and needs regarding specialist support, as well as basic demographic information. The survey will help us identify practitioners’ needs and enable us to develop new and exciting networks, training and resources for specialist work in this field.

If you think the survey is relevant to you but have not yet completed a questionnaire, please download the survey form and return it to us at:

BAPAM, FREEPOST NAT 18607, London WC1X 8BR, or contact Dr Chapman at carol.chapman@bapam.org.uk for more information.

Thanks for your help!

download the survey form here

Stage Fright and Well-being Survey

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Please note, this survey is now completed.

Danica Giles MBPsS (Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society) is investigating the effect of stage fright on the health and well-being of professional performing artists as part of her diploma thesis at the University of Tübingen, Germany.  If you are interested, take a look at the advert below.

Danica will share the results of this very interesting survey with BAPAM and the information will help our understanding of performers’ health. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. Details of the survey findings will be available through the BAPAM website

This independent research project has been checked and approved by BAPAM but we do not have a role in the funding, design or analysis of this work. We will not ‘own’ the data or project findings.


Interested in research on the well-being of performing artists?

Participate in this online survey and you can win £100!

Are you a performer and would like to know more about how you can improve your health & well-being through recovery? Then I invite you to participate in a study about stage fright and well-being that I am conducting for my diploma thesis in psychology. Just follow the link below to a questionnaire that takes about 20 minutes to complete. Your participation is completely anonymous and you can leave the questionnaire at any time. The study has been given a favourable ethical opinion by the University of Surrey Ethics Committee. You will also be given the option to enter a draw to win one prize of 100 Pounds by providing your email address at the end of the questionnaire. In a few weeks’ time you will be able to read the results with tips on how to recover more effectively from stress (via a link given to you at the end of the questionnaire)!

CLICK HERE to complete the questionairre

 

 

From injury to performance: Lessons to share in dance and sports

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

This event is almost sold out. To book your place, register now.

The Royal Society of Medicine and Dance UK have once again come together to organise a one-day dance and sports medicine conference. These two areas have much in common in terms of the demands placed on the human body and mind, and the run up to the London 2012 Olympics seems a great moment to learn from each other. In these two high performance environments risk of injury is ever present and its effects can jeopardise careers. There has already been a certain amount of cross fertilisation between the worlds of sports and dance medicine, with an increasing number of practitioners having worked with both athletes and dancers.

For all the info and to book your place, click here.

Foundations for Excellence Conference 2011

Monday, January 24th, 2011

F4E-Conference-2011-Flyer-s

Bookings are now open for the Foundations for Excellence Conference 2011 which takes place Monday 28 February – Tuesday 1 March at Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6DE.

Foundations for Excellence began as a Department for Children, Schools and Families’ Music and Dance Scheme conference in 2009 and now aims to provide practitioners, young musicians and dancers with access to current research, ideas, examples and good practice.

The 2011 conference gathers internationally recognised speakers (including Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist to BAPAM, Professor Rodney Grahame) to explore topics surrounding the nurturing and supporting of talented young dancers and musicians. Topics to be covered include:

Is Talent Innate or Trainable?
Ability or Image?
Developing and Supporting the Teacher
Matching Dreams with Reality
Lifestyle Strategies to Combat Performance Anxiety
Masterclass observation
Hypermobility
Training
Challenging Physiques
Teaching Young Voices Safely
Motivation and Goals
Supporting the Teacher’s Voice

Here’s the official flyer (or click on the image above): F4E Conference 2011

For further information and to book your place please visit the Foundations for Excellence website.

Telephone Survey

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Between September and December we will be conducting a telephone survey of a random sample of performers who visited BAPAM’s London clinic earlier in the year.

The aim of the survey is to learn about performers’ experiences at the clinic and in the months afterwards, and whether or not visiting BAPAM has been helpful. We hope the survey will enable us to assess BAPAM’s services, highlight any aspects that we may need to improve, and provide a broad understanding of the most effective treatment and care for performers’ health problems. The survey results will also help us design a routine follow-up questionnaire for all performers visiting BAPAM in future.

Participation is voluntary.

The survey is being co-ordinated by BAPAM’s Dan Hayhurst and Dr Deborah Charnock, a Trustee and Chair of BAPAM’s research group. Deborah will be conducting the interviews: she is an experienced researcher and has developed BAPAM’s Research Policy, and will ensure that any information you provide is kept strictly confidential and is anonymised in any analysis and report arising from the survey.