With the goal of helping patients improve coping and emotional regulation skills and feel comfortable going back into the community, our Psychiatric Occupational Therapy team has been partnering with a local non-profit art organization, Bread and Roses, to bring live music to our Inpatient Psychiatry Patients for the past 30+ years.

Our Director of Psychiatric Occupational Therapy Department, Annette Pinto, shares, “Music is so healing for everyone in this world – especially if you’re in the hospital. While we have headphones for patients to listen to music – live music brings something else. Live music is transformative in terms of helping people feel a little of joy while they’re in a tough place in the hospital.” Music is an artform that can help with anxiety. It can help lift one’s mood. It can help with trauma symptoms. Even the clapping and singing together builds community amongst our patients, making our units feel safer for them when they’re enjoying something together. It changes the physiology in your brain, opening new neuropathways for people to feel some joy for a while and set down their pain and just be in the moment with all of that.

ZSFG partners bi-monthly with Bread and Roses to bring volunteer musicians to share their art of music, singing familiar tunes and sometimes originals, encouraging each other to join in through song and dance. Donovan, a frequent volunteer in the program shares that he left his job as a private investigator to pursue sharing music and is so grateful for these opportunities at ZSFG because, “I end up walking away learning and gaining so much more. It’s a bit of the struggling helping the struggling.” He also recalls walking through the City and hearing someone call out, “Hey Music Man!” Turns out, a patient who had received care here had recognized him from these music sessions. “It reminds me of the importance of what I’m doing,” he shares. “My music is helping someone.”

In the most recent jam session in 7B and 7C over the holidays, patients enjoyed familiar favorites, including holiday tunes like Feliz Navidad and the popular Oasis’ Wonderwall. Singing, clapping, laughter, and joy filled the room from patients and staff alike. Everyone left the program feeling that much more connected to one another. Thanks to the power of community of care and of course, music.