Patients and staff at sites across UHN this December were met with a medley of live music and festive caroling.
According to Alison Ha, it's an effort to bring cheer and a sense of community to those working through health issues this holiday season.
"It's the time of year when you typically gather with family or take a vacation," says Ha, an advanced practice leader on the
Specialized Dementia Unit (SDU) at Toronto Rehab.
"It's not really a time you expect to be recovering from a major injury or illness. So it's just a nice thing to have for our patients."
Continuing a 15-year-long tradition, the Toronto Chamber Choir returned to Toronto Rehab to fill the hallways with carols once again. The Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir also joined the SDU's holiday party, singing for patients living with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
"Music is a universal language that resonates at every stage of life," says Willamina Sit, a recreation therapist on the SDU.
"Many rehab patients don't get to go outside all season — they're indoors all the time," she adds. "So it's nice to show them the passage of time. It's wintertime, it's Christmas."
Celebrating resilience through music
Beyond the dementia unit, holiday cheer spread to the upper floors of the building where the brain program resides. Stroke and acquired brain injury patients attended a lively performance by UHN's own TRI Hards: a band of staff who come together to sing and play ukuleles, guitars, and even the occasional bongo, glockenspiel or kazoo.
"Many patients feel down around this time of year because they have impairments that are life-altering in many ways," says Jennifer Shaw, a behaviour specialist at Toronto Rehab and a member of the band.
"That's why we're trying to promote joy, participation, engagement — anything that helps support people when they're going through a very tough time."
The TRI Hards also invited patients to join, handing out lyric booklets and encouraging them to sing along. For some, participating was more than entertainment. It was a meaningful part of their rehab journey.
For John Davidson, a patient next door at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the musical festivities came just in time. After rigorous radiation treatment over the past year, his doctor informed him earlier this month that he is cancer-free.
That's when he walked into a holiday-themed Music in the Atrium performance, a music series established in honour of Max Tanenbaum by the Tauba and Solomon Spiro Family Foundation.
He described the moment as a celebration of life.
"I feel like I'm on cloud nine. It's really uplifting," says John, who has been treated for both prostate and tonsil cancer in recent years. He will be heading to Punta Cana this week to enjoy the holidays with his family.
"It's nice to get a little bit of music before you go off on vacation and celebrate your cancer-freeness."
West Park Healthcare Centre will keep the holiday spirit going with caroling on Dec. 18, featuring Smile Theatre, a charitable group that has been bringing joy to seniors in care for the past 50 years.
