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Project 2

Major Project 2. Nordoff Robbins & University of Exeter (2005-ongoing)

Principal Investigators: Prof Tia DeNora (Dept of Sociology, University of Exeter; Dr Gary Ansdell, Nordoff Robbins)

Research Collaborators: Prof Tia DeNora (Dept of Sociology, University of Exeter; Dr Gary Ansdell, Nordoff Robbins; Prof Mercedes Pavlicevic, Nordoff Robbins; Sarah Wilson, CNWL Mental Health Trust & SMART.

Project Title: Music and Health in Everyday Life: Community Music Therapy with people in challenging healthcare environments.

Project Outline: This collaborative project grew out of two pilot projects exploring how a Community Music Therapy model was proving effective for people living with acute and enduring mental health problems across a medical and a social rehabilitation site in West London (see Section 11 below for an outline of these projects). We have collaborated with Prof DeNora (an internationally-respected music sociologist) on the development of these pilots into this more substantial project, which currently has a funding application submitted to the Economic and Social Research Council.

Collaboration-associated activity and material:

  • Ansdell, G. & Simon Procter – ‘The Social Spectrum of Music Therapy: Dyad, Group, Performance’. Academic Seminar, Dept of Sociology, University of Exeter. June 2005
  • Ansdell, G. Joshua’s Musical Pathway: Negotiating social participation and cultural inclusion within mental health. Keynote Paper, Arts Therapies Conference on Culture and Identity, David Yellin College, Jerusalem, Israel. March 2007
  • DeNora, T. (2005) ‘The Pebble in the Pond: musicing, therapy, community’. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 14(1).
  • November 2006: Nordoff Robbins Research Dept Day Symposium for 10 senior UK music therapy researchers: Evidence-Based Practice & Music Therapy: A Further Perspective. The ‘keynote guest’ for this was the sociologist Prof Tia DeNora from Exeter University.
  • DeNora, T. (2006) ‘Evidence & Effectiveness in Music Therapy’, British Journal of Music Therapy, Vol.20, No.2.

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Pilot Project 2A top Pilot Project exploring everyday musical experience and music therapy in a community mental health setting in West London (May-September 2006)

Project Title: Musical Participations, Profiles, Pathways & Networks

Principal Investigator: Dr Gary Ansdell

Research Team: Gary Ansdell, Rob Symanek (ethnomusicologist), Prof Tia DeNora

Project Outline: Nordoff Robbins Research Dept (in collaboration with Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Services Department) undertook an ethnographic pilot research project at SMART, Chelsea – a non-medical centre for people with enduring mental health problems. The project (conducted by an ethnomusicologist under the supervision of a music therapist researcher and a music sociologist) explored the members’ everyday experiences of music (and its meanings and significance for them) in relation to an innovative Community Music Therapy project at SMART in the café every Thursday afternoon. The project investigated how the music project might be further developed in relation to the members’ needs and the psycho-social agenda of SMART’s ‘bridging project’. The pilot project was also designed as a part of a feasibility study in regard to a larger collaborative project being planned (See later, Section *).

Presentations:

Sept 2006 – Rob Symanek & Gary Ansdell present the results of the pilot to the SMART staff team, and outline the possibilities for a larger study on music and Community Music Therapy at SMART.

  • May 2007 – Tia DeNora will present some of the data from this project within a keynote address to the Scandinavian Music Therapy Conference, Bergen.

Other Outcomes:

This pilot project will interface with the application Dr Ansdell is making with Prof Tia DeNora of the Dept of Sociology at Exeter University for a ESRC major research grant.

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Pilot Project 2B topPilot Project tracking an exploratory community music therapy project across medical and non-medical mental health settings in London (Jan-Dec 2007)

Project Title: The Chelsea Community Music Therapy Project: Creating and tracking ‘musical pathways’ for people with enduing mental health problems.

Principal Investigators: Dr Gary Ansdell, Prof Tia DeNora (Dept of Sociology, University of Exeter)

Research Team: Sarah Wilson, Dr Gary Ansdell, Prof Tia DeNora, Prof Mercedes Pavlicevic, Dr John Meehan

Project Outline: The project builds on previous informal work between two collaborating music therapists (Sarah Wilson & Gary Ansdell – working at South Kensington & Chelsea Mental Health Centre & SMART respectively), who have shown how a Community Music Therapy approach can effectively help with the aims of psycho-social wellbeing, social inclusion and creative inter-agency collaboration within mental health provision.

The pilot research project will help develop an expanded range of Community Music Therapy formats within SMART, and possible ‘musical pathways’ for people between acute medical, day hospital and social/rehabilitation contexts. The project will support and map these ‘musical pathways’ of clients and SMART members, with the aim of developing ideas for a larger project in this area and assessing the feasibility of such a project.

Outcomes:

This pilot project interfaces with the application Dr Ansdell is making with Prof Tia DeNora of the Dept of Sociology at Exeter University for an ESRC major research grant (See below, Section 12).

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