The HSE Talking Health and Wellbeing Podcast includes interviews and insights on the work underway by HSE Health and Wellbeing and their partners to deliver on the Healthy Ireland ambition of supporting, protecting and empowering individuals, families and their communities to achieve their full health potential.
This episode from April 2023 focuses on staff choirs and their impact on health and wellbeing. Alison Baker Kerrigan, Arts Officer in Tallaght University Hospital, discusses the impact of the Heartbeats Choir with podcast host Fergal Fox, who shares how he got involved in the HSE Tullamore Staff Choir. They both share insights about the positive effect that group singing has on their own wellbeing and how their choir performances have provided them with an opportunity to give back to their patients and communities.
Alison discusses her experience of getting involved in David Brophy’s Frontline Choir and how during COVID, she was able to connect with a new group of health colleagues as part of their performances and practices via Zoom for the television series.
Staff choirs have been promoted in recent years in the HSE as a means of promoting staff health and wellbeing. Since 2018, HSE Health and Wellbeing have hosted an annual Staff Choir Concert for health service choirs which in recent years has been online due to COVID-19.
If you would like to set up a HSE staff choir, access the guide: How to Set up a Choir for HSE Staff Health and Wellbeing.
The HSE Talking Health and Wellbeing Podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts.