Tutorial 6: The Internet and online communities.

Introduce a chosen topic of interest drawn from your fieldwork experience, an OT practice area or a personal occupation. Search online for at least three communities that relate to this topic and address the following questions and tasks.

MUSIC

This is my chosen topic of interest from my own personal hobby/occupation. I am a musical instrument enthusiast. I have a passion for learning how to play musical instruments. I also love listening to all kinds of music whilst at home or driving on the motorway. I have known for some time that there is something called music therapy (cognitive), therapy using musical intruments (motor) and music/dance therapy or as occupational fun/leisure used by some health professionals such as us OTs and Music Therapists. This is of interest to me as a student of Occupational Therapy who likes to think in other terms, out of the box.When I was on placement at the Stewart Centre in Hamilton, I became part of the use of music use as  therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury patients. As a guitar and Bongoes player, I was slotted in with a fellow student co-playing and singing together with the patients on Thursday mornings to play a couple of happy sing along songs with all the clients singing along, helped by a group of old people from an Old People's Home close by.

THREE ONLINE COMMUNITIES

1. Australian Music Therapy Association http://www.austmta.org.au/

2. British Society for Music Therapy http://www.bsmt.org/

3. American Music Therapy Association http://www.musictherapy.org/

All these three societies' websites deal with basically the same issues, namely, member discussions on the websites about membership,training, accreditation, linking, funding, diary of events, and publications (Journals and Newsletters)



Provide a brief description of each community

Below is an advertisement/announcement for this year's conference for the Australian Music Therapy Association in Bribane, Australia. This explains about all that they are about.

"Australian Music Therapy Association

Welcome to the 37th AMTA National Conference

We look forward to welcoming you to Brisbane in 2011
for the 37th Conference

Conference: 17 and 18 September 2011
PDS: 15 and 16 September 2011

Royal on the Park Hotel, corner of Alice and Albert Streets, Brisbane

Family, groups and systems: The ecology of music therapy

Programs | Conference | PDS

This year’s conference will put the spotlight on families, groups and systems, exploring how these interact with clients, therapists and interventions to influence the way we conduct and reflect on our work. We will seek to understand and gain new perspectives related to treatment, theory and research by viewing these, our clients, and ourselves through an ecological lense.

Both clients and therapists come from or live within a family of some form and are also part of particular groups – whether they be treatment groups, professional groups, community or cultural groups. Other systems that surround our work include the communities in which we work, the institutions which employ us, and the current policy and governing environments.

This conference will be asking us to consider the following questions. How is the modern family changing and how do societal trends and values impact on the family unit and what does this mean for music therapy and the people who practice and participate in it? How do we best understand family and group dynamics in ways that contribute to our work? What does music therapy mean to families and groups who engage in it and what does it mean for the families of music therapists? How do we see ourselves as a professional group– who are we, where are we headed and what is our function and role in the healthcare system?

This year we have invited two keynote speakers to illuminate this theme.

Associate Professor Jan Nicholson, Principal Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Centre for Learning Innovation, Queensland University of Technology

Associate Professor Jan Nicholson has a background in child and family psychology with post-doctoral training in public health. Dr Nicholson’s research examines the influence of contemporary family, social and organisational environments on children’s healthy development, with a particular focus on vulnerable families. Jan has had significant experience in researching the effectiveness of music therapy with families and so will bring a strong research perspective to the conference.

Lucy Forrest, RMT, MMus (Ethno) BMus (Therapy) Hons

Lucy Forrest has been working in palliative care music therapy for 16 years, and currently works with Mercy Palliative Care in Melbourne, providing palliative and bereavement support to children, adults and families. Lucy is also a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, and her research is examining the experience of music for paediatric palliative care patients and their parents, who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

To join the conference mailing list please email your details to the AMTA office.

Australian Music Therapy Association"
(http://www.austmta.org.au/)



BRITISH SOCIETY FOR MUSIC THERAPY

"The British Society for Music Therapy was founded in 1958 by Juliette Alvin and her colleagues under the name of 'Society for Music Therapy and Remedial Music' with the object of promoting the use and development of music therapy. This is still, in 2010, our aim. The BSMT is a Registered Charity, Number 260837.

At that time music therapy was scarcely known as a profession, although music had been acknowledged as a means of healing for thousands of years. The BSMT was vital in supporting the work of the early pioneers and in helping the developing profession to gain the respect and status which it now enjoys. The BSMT has grown into an organisation which reaches people with an interest in music therapy all over the UK and worldwide.

The BSMT acts as an advisory body and is a centre of information and dissemination on services, training, bibliography and research, receiving from home and abroad a vast number of enquiries on all aspects of music therapy.

Membership of the British Society for Music Therapy is open to anyone interested in music therapy. The international membership of the BSMT (currently around 800 people) represents many different professions including music therapists, musicians, medical and para-medical personnel, teachers, social workers, parents and students. Since 2000 members of the Association of Professional Music Therapists have automatically become members of the BSMT. Please go to the Membership page for further details.

The Society is run by the Chairperson, Executive Committee members and the administration team in the BSMT Office. The Executive Committee meets regularly in London to plan the future activities of the Society as well as the everyday running of the BSMT. Further committees are set up to deal with other events, such as the successful 10th World Congress of Music Therapy, held in Oxford from the 23rd-28th July 2002 with over 800 therapists attending. This huge event was planned by an Organising Committee of 8 music therapists and an International Scientific Committee of 22 music therapists and the administration team in the BSMT office.

There is also an Advisory Council"
(http://www.bsmt.org/the_society.htm)



"American Music Therapy Association

"AMTA's purpose is the progressive development of the therapeutic use of music in rehabilitation, special education, and community settings. Predecessors, unified in 1998, included the National Association for Music Therapy founded in 1950 and the American Association for Music Therapy founded in 1971. AMTA is committed to the advancement of education, training, professional standards, credentials, and research in support of the music therapy profession.

What is the Profession of Music Therapy?
Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program" (http://www.musictherapy.org/)


Below is a 'Youtube' video showcasing disabled people dancing just like any other breakdancers around town. They Are showing that disability does not mean inability as they partake in their favoured activities for daily living/leisure.


youtu.be/0b_9rhnn1r4

Below, exceptionally talented musicians with autism
Overcoming autism, spreading hope through music

youtu.be/ho18gaNa8Ow


Below, music being used as a catalyst for meditation.

youtu.be/WPvMJ0LMTtY


Below, Zimbabwean Disabled musicians performing in London. Music (performing and recording) is now their livelihood, their main occupation, though it started as a therapy tool to cure boredom. Technology helps a lot in the modifications of their instruments for ease of play.


youtu.be/tWM4ie1qF7E


REFERENCES


Australian Music Therapy Association. (2011). Retrieved May 11, 2011, from http://www.austmta.org.au/

American Music Therapy Association. (2011). Retrieved May 11, 2011, from http://www.musictherapy.org/

Breakdancing of Disabled People. (2011). Retrieved May 11, 2011, from youtu.be/0b_9rhnn1r4

British Society for Music Therapy. (2011). Retrieved May 11, 2011, from http://www.bsmt.org/

Liyana @ NAM 2009 Part 1. (2011). retrieved from, youtu.be/tWM4ie1qF7E, on 11 May, 2011.

Master Reiki Meditation Music, Calm Abiding Music. (2011). Retrieved May 11, 2011, from youtu.be/WPvMJ0LMTtY

Overcoming autism, spreading hope through music. (2011). Retrieved May 11, 2011, from youtu.be/ho18gaNa8Ow