La Société pour les arts en milieux de santé (SAMS)

Culture and Health in Perfect Harmony

Created in 2009, La SAMS (Société pour les arts en milieux de santé) is the largest network of professional musicians offering customized concerts in health care facilities in Quebec. This charitable organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life of individuals in health care settings by bringing the arts to them, in particular the healing properties of music. Since its creation, it has presented nearly 7,000 concerts to audiences of nearly 300,000 people, while also hiring more than 220 professional artists drawn from the finest classical, jazz, world music and singing ensembles.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected SAMS in two ways. First, as a cultural organization forced to put a halt to all its artistic activity; but also, and mainly, because patients in the long term care homes (CHSLDs) in which it was performing were particularly hard hit by the pandemic. Still, the organization’s solidarity with both the health care system and the musical world has become stronger than ever in these uncertain times. La SAMS has managed to reinvent itself by offering seven added services that are adapted to lockdown and physical distancing, so as to continue to bring individuals the enormous benefits its activities provide.

  1. Appels du Cœur, 189 phone calls: singers and instrumentalists perform songs over the phone, dedicating them to patients. This is also an opportunity to have a brief personal chat with them.
  2. Capsules du Cœur, available online (4,800 views) and on DVD: these short videos bring La SAMS professional artists and their music into the daily lives of patients.
  3. Live concerts streamed via Zoom and similar platforms.
  4. Serenades to the balcony: musical performances taking place outside health care facilities.
  5. The SAM’Chante choir: Zoom-based rehearsal sessions for a choir made up of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease or aphasia.
  6. The creation of a DVD including the best short videos, for reaching out to patients in CHSLDs that do not have internet access for residents.
  7. Musical performances for patients’ families.

The Foundation of Greater Montréal is proud to have contributed to the creation of these new services. In all, La SAMS has been able to offer 660 performances since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, also yielding $150,000 in fees for the artists.