The Dandenong Ranges Music Council is proud to announce that in 2002, Attitude Community Arts Project is offering two places in the arts and disability mentorship program. Attitude promotes creative expression opportunities for adults with disabilities. This program is supported by a generous grant from Arts Victoria.
The program will offer successful participants development of key knowledge and skills in the management of disability arts programs. This will be achieved via a two-part program. Participants will attend forty hours of mentor sessions throughout the year with principal mentor Catherine Threlfall and guest mentors. These sessions will cover all aspects and include the opportunity for discussion and reflection. The mentor sessions will be complimented by practical experience alongside Attitude staff, and formal visits to other Victorian disability arts organisations.
The mentorship program provides a unique opportunity to be directly involved in an inspiring disability arts program, and to discuss and reflect upon key issues. Participants will be encouraged to develop the artistic judgement, knowledge, skills, networks and the passion to initiate and manage further disability arts projects or to be employed in existing programs.
Contact Catherine Threlfall on (03) 5968 0026 or at e-mail enrich@foxall.com.au
for more details. Don't miss this fabulous opportunity. Apply today!!! Applications
Close 30 January 2002
The Faculty of Music, Univeristy of Melbourne, is pleased to announce a Faculty Certificate in Music-Imagery Methods for Health Practitioners. This course is designed for people who are actively practising in the health field, to provide them with skills in music and imagery methods that can be used in current practice.
Study will incorporate
The certificate will be offered in a seminar model in order to enable interstate people to take the course. The course covers prerequisites that enable graduates to be eligibel to apply to the Graduate Dimploma in Guided Imagery and Music (Bonny Method).
For further information please contact Sanchia Draper, Graduate Programs Office at sdraper@unimelb.edu.au or (03)8344-4337.
At the closing session of the 2001 National Conference on Sunday 7th October, Awards Chairperson, Cherie Baxter, presented the two awards for outstanding conference presentations(see Conference Awards for background).
The 2001 Ruth Bright Award was presented Catherine Threlfall RMT for
her paper titled
Musical pathways: From the classroom to the community.
This paper examined the importance of creating pathways for performers with intellectual disabilities to take their music to the community, and the role of the music therapist in facilitating music performance programs. Catherine presented case material from a special developmental school music performance program and a community disability arts project.
Catherine is a Melbourne music therapist at Mt Evelyn Special Developmental School and is Project Manager - Attitude Project, Dandenong Ranges Music Council. This year she used her Foundation For Young Australians Award to travel to Europe to examine Community music Therapy. She has been Yarra Ranges Citizen of the Year and a finalist in the Young Australian of the Year Awards for her work in disability arts, most particularly with the Attitude disability arts project. Catherine is committed to access to music for everyone.
The 2001 Denise Grocke Award was presented to Clare de Bruin for her
paper titled
Is it time to get Grandma and Grandpa a drum?: Two case studies using improvisational
drumming with dementia clients in group settings.
Clare's paper presented case studies people diagnosed with middle to late stage dementia in dyadic drum improvisation during group music therapy sessions. The improvisations between clients suggested a beat and a style of playing that may have parallels with clinical presentations of dementia. This 'dementia drumming ' was discussed through the rhythm, stylistic playing, subjective tempo, and the overall improvisation.
Clare de Bruin was a stage / production manager in the theatre industry, before
returning to music, and completing a course in Jazz and popular music and a
Bachelor of Music. She is a new graduate of the music therapy course at Melbourne
University.
Congratulations to the Music Therapy Unit at the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne and the University of Western Sydney's Macarthur Auditory Research Centre on a successful application to the Australian Research Council for a Linkage Grant. The Linkage Scheme requires universities to link with an industry partner to propose research projects. All parties are required to contribute funds to these multi-disciplinary projects. This three-year project entitled 'An investigation of intersubjectivity: Music therapy and hospitalised infants' will examine the efficacy of a music therapy intervention in improving infant health, and micro-analysis of the interaction between infant and therapist in order to further understand the nature of the Communicative Musicality of the interaction. Helen Shoemark will be the RA/clinician to provide the data for this project.
Helen Shoemark
Music Therapy Unit
Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne
Tel: (03) 9345-5421
Fax: (03) 9345-5090
The Australian Music Therapy Association congratulates Melbourne music therapist
Bridgit Hogan on being selected to present the inaugural Ian Maddocks Lecture
at the Australian Palliative Care Conference
held in Tasmania in September. This newly created honour from Palliative Care
Australia is awarded for "the best submission by a palliative worker in
Australia who is under the age of 40 and engaged in the study and delivery of
palliative care in any of its component disciplines". The award included
travel, accommodation and registration at the conference, as well as the honour
of delivering the paper at a plenary session at the conference. This was a sought
after award by people from many disciplines.
Bridgit graduated with her BMus from Melbourne University in 1991, and completed
her Masters degree at Melbourne University in 1997. She is best known for her
development of the music therapy department at palliative care service, Bethlehem
Hospital in Caulfield, which now boasts a team of eight RMTs. Bridgit is also
Chair of the National Registration Committee for AMTA Inc.
Congratulations Bridgit!
The Gerentology Foundation of Australia is again offering a $5,000 research
grant for research which will assess the effectiveness of music therapy in meeting
the psycho-social needs of older people with dementia. This project is only
open to graduates, undergraduate students or post-graduate students. Applicants
will not have had previous work published in a refereed journal and will not
have previously won any research grants in open competition.
For further information please see the on-line information at http://www.essence.com.au/geront/grant.html