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All in this Together- John Barnes

from Now That's What I Call Glastonbury Calling Side 2 by Various

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Barnes, J. (2020) All in this together. Tonic Music for Mental Health
Vocals and guitar performed by John Barnes
Feat. flute instrumental composed and played by Zöe Walker

I’m really blown away by All in this Together being included as a bonus track on the album Now That’s what I call Glastonbury Calling, (thank you Ian) especially as the proceeds go to keeping local venues open.

Why has a Somerset psychiatrist (me) written the song All in this Together?

At the start of the lockdown I started writing a blog for the charity Tonic Music for Mental Health.
Tonic, though based in Portsmouth have been working with me and colleagues here in Somerset
and our patients recently.
The blog I wrote was about the effect that the conditions in which we are born, grow, live and work have on our mental and physical health. For people with socioeconomic disadvantage living in relatively deprived areas this is a particularly bad one. I settled on the title The Ghost Town Effect, referencing the The Specials 1981 hit which highlighted the social problems of the time including “all the clubs being closed down”.
If you read the blog you will see that I explain how The Ghost Town Effect works to produce its devastating effects on physical and mental health. www.tonicmusic.co.uk/post/the-ghost-town-effect
There is a youtube link to the song embedded in the blog to which we are planning to add a song All in this Together video.
The blog makes the case that to make things better needs action in all areas of society to empower local communities to be active with health, social care and grassroots voluntary organisations.


Mental health and Creativity in Somerset Now

To avoid you going off to sleep reading the rest of this blog before getting some links at the end here they are!

If you might be interested in doing a course free of charge to gain knowledge, understanding skills to aid one’s own wellbeing or recovery from mental health problems. Check out the new Somerset Recovery College, online in the lockdown but otherwise at venues all over Somerset; somersetwlc.co.uk

If you live or work in Sedgemoor check out the forthcoming Arts Council funded community arts program for everyone to attend called Seed Sedgemoor. Not a project explicitly badged for wellbeing but focused on arts participation for everyone. This has got going despite the lockdown seedsedgemoor.com/creative-lives-under-lockdown/
Seed are keen to get as much participation as possible going now and continue for the next 3-4 years with a 10 year vision. Join the conversation and have your say now in what you’d like to see develop in arts and culture (inc. music) in Sedgemoorhttps://seedsedgemoor.com




Are you a Professional musician and artist curious about working with others to support their own creativity?
If you are a professional musician or artist in Somerset or nearby who might be interested in or just curious about work helping people in the community develop their own creativity, then see the free online event on 17th July seedsedgemoor.com/artist-professional-development/ Or just contact Seed Sedgemoor directly if you’ve missed that date.
seedsedgemoor.com



Transforming mental health care in Somerset
Somerset has in recent months become one of 12 NHS pilot sites in the country for radical transformation of the way mental health services are provided.
What did the national charity Rethink Mental Illness say about this national program;

“We’re supportive of the place-based approach and look forward to seeing how the 12 pilot sites each craft their own local solution to place community at the heart of their new mental health services. The significant funding behind these pilots should allow each area to foster strong relationships and deliver holistic, rounded care to a group that has for too long been forgotten.”

This program has started locally with the formation of the Somerset Mental Health Alliance, a partnership of ten voluntary organisations to work alongside NHS services. www.rethink.org/aboutus/what-we-do/somerset-recovery-wellbeing-alliance/




To learn more about how this is going and also how music and arts might contribute to this development, watch the video recording of a webinar www.ahsw.org.uk/resources/webinars/ of a couple of weeks ago with Keynote talks by Jane Yeandle Service Director, Mental Health & Learning Disabilities Directorate, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and Vicky Sullivan, Health & Wellbeing Coordinator, Spark Somerset about the transformation plans and the new alliance.
Also see in the video the inspiring examples of present arts in mental and physical health projects in Somerset.


How are local venues helpful to local wellbeing?

I asked Mental health Social Worker Steph Langan of the aforementioned Portsmouth based Tonic Music for Mental Health to comment on the importance of local venues. Steph reflected on Tonics experience in Portsmouth;

“Grassroots music venues are a vital fabric to every community in every town and City across the UK. They provide a platform for local and emerging artists to learn their craft in front of a home-crowd of family, friends and music lovers hoping to discover the 'next big thing' in their local intimate venue. The venue owners and staff provide vital support, advice and guidance to young musicians just starting out and navigating the complexities and often insecurities of the music industry. They provide a vital community benefit to local charities, organisations and colleges who host regular benefit gigs to raise funds for causes within the local area, waiving hire fees and costs to enable greater funds to be raised. It was our local music venues, The Wedgewood Rooms and The Cellars that we first contacted upon starting Tonic and where we first met Geoff Priestley (owner of The Wedgewood Rooms) and Steve Pitt (owner of The Cellars - now closed) for advice and guidance. Geoff has supported us with free hire of the venue for gigs and we held our very first music and art workshops in the smaller Edge of The Wedge venue. It was also the stage that our Tonic Ska Choir performed on and will always hold special memories for not only me but every member of the choir who performed that night. Profit margins for grassroots venues are always slim. It's a tough business at the best of times, never mind during a pandemic. It is vital that we all support our local grassroots venue now more than ever so they can be protected for future generations of music-makers and music-lovers.”

Steph Langan
Founder / Director Tonic Music for Mental Health
Recovery through Music & Art


The self-evident benefits of attending live music performances are probably well understood by the majority of visitors to Glastonbury Calling blog page! There’s also growing well conducted research evidencing health benefits e.g the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing of the over 50’s has found a protective effect at attendance at cultural events on the development of depression in the following 10 years with a “dose effect” of how frequently you go, with a 32% lower risk of developing depression for people who attended every few months 48% lower risk for people who attended once a month or more.





Creative City Somerset Project

Music is helpful to many people in their recovery from mental health problems as the work of Tonic Music for Mental Health shows last year in the Creative City Somerset project.
Somerset lacking a university city to give support or “critical mass” to funded arts, the name of our project was inspired by the Pilton festival with a “creative city” springing up phoenix like each year from the fields at Worthy Farm.
Recording artist Vinny Peculiar vinnypeculiar.com
helped our patients recovering from mental health problems write and perform with the accompanying video Richard Tomlinson from Somerset Film enabled through introducing participants to green screen digital technology ; CreativeCity Energy and cohesiveness was in abundance in the project via African Drumming led by Sharon Stone of www.organicrhythm.co.uk
See brief documentary clip with Vinny and I about the project youtu.be/QK2qWByQa9A
Many thanks to Phil Shepherd at The Engine Room for keeping the project on track www.somersetfilm.com
Also thanks to my colleagues in Somerset Foundation Trust who’s enthusiasm made the project happen particularly Occupational Therapists Gail Mackenzie, Chloe Hofgartner and Zoe Walker (who also plays the flute on All in this Together.)









Creativity for the Common Good and empowerment of disadvantaged groups

Focusing here on what my pick of the contribution of artists and musicians have brought people together improving health, wellbeing and the common good in history.

One could start this history over 40,000 years ago as a vulture bone flute of that age was discovered in a cave in Germany in 2008. The ancient flutes are evidence for an early musical tradition that likely helped modern humans communicate and form tighter social bonds. www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2009/06/bone-flute-is-oldest-instrument--study-says/ But let’s flip forward to more modern times!

• During WW2, investment in arts and culture to support morale on in the armed forces and. the home front.
• This closed down after the war closed down but the Arts Council took its place and initially put its attention into the fine arts.
• Artists and musicians took jobs in mental hospitals and pioneered the foundation of professional practice in creative therapies as we know it today. Eg Edward Adamson and Mary Priestly
• Since the 1960s pioneering community artists and musicians worked to empower disadvantaged groups but its only in recent years recently their work is being recognised as meriting or being in the remit of the Arts Council.
• In 1979 2-Tone sound bands with black and white lineups from the midlands fused Jamaican ska and reggae with punk and dominated the charts for 30 months
challenging racism of the era. www.ministryofrock.co.uk/twotone.html
• In recent years the Arts Council England (ACE) set up a large community arts participation project, Creative People and Places focusing on less well resourced areas in the country. and last year announced funding to support grassroots local venues. www.artscouncil.org.uk/blog/supporting-grassroots-music-venues.


For a full and stimulating history of the development of community arts you could do no better than read A Restless Art How participation won, and why it matters 2019 by François Matarasso who in order to make it accessible provides a free pdf of the full book here arestlessart.com/the-book/download-a-digital-copy/
For the full story of how and why 2-Tone music developed where it did the conclusion of Sarah Conduit’s 2017 MA thesis of is really readable
clok.uclan.ac.uk/23006/1/23006%20Conduit%20Susan%20Final%20e-Thesis%20%28Master%20Copy%29.pdf


Last verse and Chorus

I hope you have found the All in this Together song and blog and the Ghost Town Effect blog stimulating and the links helpful.
They only scratch the surface of the work of artists and organisations of all kinds do currently in Somerset and elsewhere that benefits health. Despite these examples of good practice it is recognised that this is not available to everyone everywhere in this country particularly so for some people with major mental health problems who remain to be some of the most excluded members of society. baringfoundation.org.uk/resource/creatively-minded/ (p 5-6)

I think we can really hope that the transformation of our services will diminish these types of inequality amongst others to the benefit of all.
So I hope that there will be more opportunities for artists and musicians to develop community art and music as a strand in their careers as an adjunct to health services provide fully comprehensive care in a holistic way.
We should all get out to gigs more, there being good evidence that regular llve cultural attendance is protective to long term mental health.
We also need to keep local venues open to support the development of musical careers and provide a thriving resource for local community organisations that are key in the transformation of NHS mental and physical health services.

As the song goes..
“We’re All in this Together
Lets try and make this true!”

That’s all for now!

John

Dr John Barnes
Consultant Rehabilitation Psychiatrist Somerset Foundation NHS Trust
Advisor to Tonic Music for Mental Health

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Glastonbury Calling Glastonbury, UK

Fundraising album put together with some of the fantastic artists that have played Glastonbury Calling or want their tracks on to help the venues in the town.
Mainly these artists are based in the West Country and we can't thank them enough for contributing a track on this epic sprawling album.
Thanks to everyone who contributed their help by buying, promoting and putting this beast together.
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