Music and health: success for Wellness with WNO and expansion for ENO Breathe

WNO Producer April Heade who helped develop Wellness with WNO

The link between music, performance and health is one that performers (both amateur and professional) have largely understood implicitly, but bringing this concept to the wider world remains something of a challenge. As long ago as 2019, the WHO was reporting on arts and health [see Making Music website]

English National Opera launched ENO Breathe in 2020 in response to COVID-19 and now the programme is being rolled out further. Whilst Welsh National Opera has recently announced that a report into its its pilot Wellness with WNO: Managing Persistent Pain Programme shows that the programme has success managing Persistent Pain.

WNO’s six-week online singing and breathing pilot programme, running from March 2024 to March 2025, was designed to support people living with persistent pain. Building on the success of WNO’s Wellness with WNO Long COVID Programme, which launched in 2021, the programme includes weekly one-hour sessions and optional fortnightly drop-in sessions. A report, conducted by Milestone Tweed, highlights substantial improvements in pain management, mental and emotional health, and overall quality of life for participants. The five principal findings from the report are:

• Reduced Pain and Improved Functionality
• Emotional and Mental Health Benefits
• High Participant Engagement
• Cost Efficiency
• Additional Benefits

I think that an interesting take-away is the fourth point –  sessions are estimated to cost of £12 per person per hour, compared to £34.30 for an NHS Band 7 Physiotherapist from Chronic Pain Services.

ENO Breathe is an online programme, developed by ENO in collaboration with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, was developed in 2020 to support people recovering from COVID-19 who continue to suffer from breathlessness and associated anxiety.