News
There are many inspiring stories of the wonderful work of Australia’s talented music therapists and the people they’ve helped.
Music therapy has a big part to play in the care of babies
Quote: Dr Peter McDougall, Director, Department of Neonatology, Royal Children’s Hospital on therapist, Helen Shoemark’s work into the effect of the human voice on premature babies: (Helen’s research) indicates that there’s more to looking after sick babies than turning up the oxygen or giving feeds... it stresses the need to think about other things. I think music therapy has a big part to play in the care of babies. I’m a big supporter of it.”
Annette Baron draws late-stage dementia patients out of isolation with music from their past
Quote: ‘I think there’s potential for home-based carers and family members to use vocal improvisation and singing of favourite and familiar songs to help maintain some kind of connection with their loved ones, right to the end. After all, music is just about the last memory to go. Not only that, music is a universal tool which everyone has a connection with in some way or other.’
Music therapy can help brain-injured patients reclaim their powers of speech.
Quote: Dr David Burke, Senior Consultant, Rehabilitation Medicine, Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre, Melbourne.
“Sometimes it’s the music therapy that provides the trigger, a way in to that patient - leading the way for speech therapists, occupational therapists and other staff. The more orthodox practices aren’t always easy or even appropriate in patients where there is low level of function.”
Music therapy can help relieve acute anxiety in the terminally ill.
Quote: Calvary, Bethlehem’s Clinical Director of Palliative Care, Dr Jane Fischer.
“From a clinical perspective I think (music therapy) can be great, not just in the management of anxiety but for shortness of breath, as a strategy for pain management, as a distracting technique. So it’s great from a symptom-management point of view. But it can also play an invaluable role in helping the patient tackle the more existential, end-of-life issues.”
Many experts in music therapy and community music have joined Making Music Being Well. Here is a quick look at who’s saying what about the benefits of music:
Music and young people with disabilities
“Health and wellbeing rests firmly in a young person's capacity to build positive relationships with the people in their world. Making music together cuts straight to the heart of friendship for young people with disabilities - sharing a laugh, expressing joy, hopes, and disappointments, making a statement about identity, being connected. Music making makes friends: what can be more important than that?”
Catherine Threlfall, Music Therapist and Special Educator, Darwin NT
Music as an empowering form of communication
“There is nothing like the experience of expressing yourself through music. Not only is music the language of the emotions, it is also a way of putting your real self out there and being heard. Society relies heavily on words as the medium for communication, but in group music making all the players can speak at once and experience the sensation of active listening. The reciprocal relationships that this allows is truly empowering and should be an essential part of the human experience.”
Dr. Katrina McFerran, Lecturer - Music Therapy Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne VIC
Reclaiming our birthright. Just do it!
“We’re born (able) to make music with others. Sadly, we live in a society desperate to stop most of us doing just that. And having been conned into keeping quiet, we lose the tune. But we don’t lose the innate ability – with a little exercise it comes back, as do the good feelings that inevitably arise from group music-making. Just do it and you will rediscover the joy of joining with others in creating a rhythmic (and often harmonious) noise.”
Jon Hawkes, Executive Officer, Community Music Victoria
Music therapy in hospitals
“Often in the chemotherapy ward when I sit by a client and sing they start to join in, quietly at first, smiling. Then slowly other clients begin to sing. The woman four chairs down with a flannel across her eyes begins to sing so loudly that the song takes on a life of its own as most of the others join in to the chorus. It’s not sterile treatment space anymore. It’s a place where people are coming together in music making.”
Emma O’Brien, Senior Music Therapist, Royal Melbourne Hospital, VIC
