Using song to help address health inequalities
A Stoke-on-Trent group has developed new resources aimed at helping people to better understand health inequalities through the power of song.
Stoke Your Gratitude CIC represent communities experiencing overlapping health inequalities including people with mental health challenges, neurodiverse people and refugees and asylum seekers.
Their latest project, supported through Tackling Health Inequalities grant funding, has aimed to turn people’s lived experience into a digital songbook.
The five completed songs cover a range of subjects from food poverty to weight stigma and mental health challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers. They are topped off with an anthemic rendition of a song about community resilience called ‘The Potteries don’t break’.
The songs are now available to listen to on the Stoke Your Gratitude website and director Bret Shah is hopeful that they will become useful conversation starters and increase understanding of health inequalities.
He said: “Our community experiences multiple, overlapping inequalities that directly affect both physical and mental health. These include poverty, poor housing, limited transport, stigma, and unequal access to services.
“For many, there is also a gap in understanding: people know they are struggling, but not always why. When people blame themselves, it damages wellbeing and disconnects them from support.”
The songs are accompanied by a downloadable songbook which shares the lyrics to each song, provides evidence and further reading and prompts deeper reflections and discussion points on the identified health issue.
Bret added: “When information is conveyed creatively, people listen longer, remember more, and relate what they hear to their own lives. Our project turns public health information and lived experience into something human, inclusive and memorable.”
“We have worked with champions on the songs and testing what works. Some of the finished songs were played at the Community Health Champions summer picnic – they were very well received, and it was great to have Laura Thirlwell from dDeaflinks signing along.”
“This shows that there is the potential for more work around this and we look forward to hearing people’s feedback and whether this sparks new ideas and collaborations.”
