What we do

Liverpool Philharmonic and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust have worked in partnership since 2008, providing live music and music-making activities  at Mersey Care inpatient units and community settings, engaging 10,000 service users, their families and carers, and trust staff over the decade. The programme works with adults of all ages with mental health needs, learning disabilities and in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, providing bespoke programmes, co-developed with service users and Mersey Care staff. 

Session activities, led by a team of professional musicians from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and additional composers and choral directors, include live-music performance, group discussion, informal learning, musical history, composition and improvisation, songwriting and co-produced Recovery College music courses. The community programme provides a bridge to independent activities, such as rehearsal and concert visits at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. 

The work increases people’s confidence, reduces social isolation and exclusion, develops new skills and supports independent living. It also has a profound impact on service user-carer relationships and has successfully introduced new non-clinical approaches to recovery within Mersey Care’s clinical inpatient and community settings. In 2016–17, Dr Susanne Burns carried out a programme review which led to the Partnerships for Recovery report, launched in October 2017. The partners have announced an ambition to grow this programme over the next five years across Liverpool City Region, working with an additional 10,000 service users to consolidate and expand programme reach, deepen impact and invest in further evaluation and dissemination.