Web-based portal Lifepsychol monitors patients’ quality of life
Chroma, the UK’s leading national provider of arts therapy services, is to pilot Lifepsychol, an innovative new patient-driven system that could ultimately help up to 14 million people in the UK living with long-term or life-threatening conditions who wish to optimise their quality of life. Giving users back control of their care, the easy-to-use web-based portal monitors real-time patient-self-reported quality of life indicators. Measuring 12 essential areas that have the biggest impact on how patients view their rehabilitation and recovery, Lifepsychol helps clinicians and next of kin track their loved one’s levels of: Developed by Innervate Ltd, Chroma will trial the system with clients coming through their new Chroma Case Management (CCM) service. CCM is a brain injury case management service which uses bespoke therapy programmes and digital healthcare innovations to enable patients return to normal life and work following a brain injury. Lifepsychol enables users to record how their quality of life is changing whilst living with a long-term, chronic condition. The system also enables clinicians and case managers to review progress between consultations, so giving a fuller picture of the impact of the treatment users receive. Daniel Thomas, joint Managing Director of Chroma, said: “Having tested Lifepsychol internally over the last few months, we’ve seen the huge potential the system can offer patients, therapists and our case managers.” “Lifepsychol places the individual at the heart of quality of life assessment and encourages healthcare professionals to focus on the impact of the symptoms on a person’s life, rather than just focus on the symptoms.” Used daily, Lifepsychol is a quick and visual approach that shows how actions taken, either by the user or professional, can change a person’s quality of life. Users are more involved and therefore more encouraged to become a partner in the management of their long-term condition. Additionally, it means a more holistic approach to treatment.” Dr Neil Bindemann of Innervate Ltd, who developed Lifepsychol, added: “The Government has recognised that improving the quality of life of people with long-term conditions is a key outcome for an effective healthcare service. However, our own extensive research identified that existing quality of life measures do not properly assess the impact of a condition on issues that patients often wish to discuss. “Evidence from over 600 people, which help develop the 12 issues monitored, also provided further evidence that quality of life assessment needed to take a more personalised approach. Our system helps health professionals to engage in a more meaningful way, making health care more responsive to the quality of life needs and wishes of patients as well as encourages better, communication between healthcare professionals and patients.” Lifepsychol provides a simple way for a service to assess whether it is improving the quality of life of people with long-term conditions, on an individual and population basis. It is presently a web-based system, but a mobile version with the ability to set up alerts will soon be launched. For more information on Lifepsychol, see the website.
‘At Chroma we provide a multidisciplinary approach’
Company director and arts therapist Daniel Thomas tells Care and Nursing Essentials about the work Chroma does with families, as well as neurology patients… Tell us about Chroma and what you do… We are the UK’s leading national provider of arts therapies services working across a range of sectors to improve the lives of every person who works with us. Our 70+ team of experienced therapists provide a national service covering the education and health and social care sectors. We provide art psychotherapy, music therapy, neurologic music therapy and dramatherapy. We work with social care partners and local authorities supporting adopted children and their families, in healthcare for people who need rehabilitation from brain injuries but also those with dementia or other neurological diseases. A lot of our time is spent in the education sector, providing arts therapy sessions to pupils in SEN schools as well as mainstream schools but also within early years to help children’s development. Currently one of our main focuses is around neurologic music therapy and how this can be used to improve the outcomes for those living with acquired brain injuries. How can neurologic music therapy help those living with acquired brain injury? Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) offers an effective rehabilitation treatment that is backed by a wealth of clinical evidence and has been shown to have a profound influence on the brain. NMT is used as a method of rehabilitation for those living with acquired brain injuries such as a Stroke or injuries from a car crash. Music can bypass damaged areas of the brain, providing a scaffold to do the part of the work the brain is not doing in coordinating movement. But there is also the basic ‘use it or lose it principle’. When you exercise something, it gets stronger and the more you exercise, the better it becomes. There is strong neurological evidence that music activates many different areas across the brain. The motor system is very sensitive to picking up cues from the auditory system so when we hear music, particularly pulse or rhythm, it kicks straight into the motor system going around the brain. Is neurologic music therapy readily available in the UK? Currently NMT isn’t available as a standard NHS practice however there are a number of private hospitals and rehabilitation centres across the UK that we work with who provide NMT to their patients. We have partnered with STEPS rehabilitation centre in Sheffield as well as Hobbs rehabilitation which has 10 centres across the south of England. We also work with HCA healthcare at the Wellington and Portland hospitals in London. Recently we have secured a number of other pilot programmes across the UK which we are excited about launching so NMT is slowly becoming more readily available in the UK. We hope our work in taking music therapy into the mainstream will help ensure that at some point music therapy is available as standard in healthcare. As proof of our commitment to this, we have begun working with 3 NHS hospitals, Charing Cross, York General and the Great North Children’s Hospital. We also have pilot projects under consideration with 3 more NHS brain injury services. Where does the pioneering research on neurologic music therapy come from? The benefits of music therapy have been recognised for more than 70 years and, in the UK, it is a recognised Allied Health Profession however Dr Michael Thaut is widely acknowledged as the “Creator of Neurologic Music Therapy”. Dr Thaut’s work in this area is renowned as having brought a new clinical and systematic approach to its use in neurology. His research in brain function and music has focused on neurologic rehabilitation of key cognitive and motor functions, frequently enabling those affected by issues such as strokes and brain injuries to make significant strides towards recovery. Dr Thaut’s work over the last few decades has had a dramatic impact and influence on the growth in stature of NMT within clinical environments. There are 100s of studies highlighting the efficacy of NMT across brain injuries; for example a Randomised Control Trial in 1997 found that NMT was more effective that physiotherapy alone in gait rehabilitation. More recent studies have concluded that by increasing walking speed by only 10cm per second, a 7% reduction in the risk of falling can be made. Put these two finding together, and you see why NMT is such a breakthrough treatment. Tell us about Chroma’s work with children and young people. We work with a range of children and young people whose needs and requirements vary dramatically and so our approach in therapy is to ensure we provide each child/group with the right therapy to maximise their development and/or progress. Our early years development is in the form of ‘Sing and Grow’, a programme we have been running since 2010. The programme supports families with young children by strengthening their relationships, enhancing parent-child attachment and encouraging the use of music to support educational attainment. Our experienced team also work with primary school students with a range of challenges including autism, learning difficulties and troubled backgrounds. We work with the staff, carers and pupils to strive for shared goals for each child. We also work with secondary school students through our “Drumpower” programme. The intervention supports students in the constructive handling of aggression as an individual, develops their sense of community and their levels of co-operation, as well as growing their confidence in their own voice and to communicate with others more effectively. We also work with special schools and alternative provision partners throughout the UK, slotting in easily with established MDT’s. Is neurologic music therapy a cost-effective approach to rehabilitation? There have been a number of studies completed recently that have concluded neurologic music therapy is a cost effective method of co-ordinated rehabilitation services. Residential cognitive behaviour programmes have been shown to result in a £1.3 million saving per patient treated in the first year after a traumatic brain injury. This saving was made due to the ability to
