Are community music therapy principles relevant to my work with large groups of older adults in a residential care facility?

This research focuses on my student practicum placement at a residential care home offering rest home, hospital and specialist dementia care for older people. A significant part of my work at the home was facilitating large, open groups, as ensuring the maximum number of residents could participate in music therapy each week was a priority for the facility. Due to my background in community music, which included work in care homes, I was interested in whether community music therapy principles would have relevance in this context. I wanted to improve my practice and add value to my work and in doing so I also hoped to contribute to the wider conversation around the distinction between community music and community music therapy, and how these two disciplines can enhance and support each other.  Using an interpretivist framework I engaged in action research, an orientation towards the research process which focuses on real-world change. I conducted three action cycles, collecting data for each cycle over a period of approximately six weeks. I then used thematic analysis to examine this data. My main data source was my practice notes, which included reflections and ideas for improvement. I also drew on the community music therapy literature to develop my practice. Based on emerging themes, I generated actions I could take in the next cycle to advance and improve my practice.  I found that large group music therapy sessions can provide the opportunity for participants, both staff and residents, to experience a shared social space which enables moments of connection and promotes inclusion, creativity, self-determination, and expanded identities. This suggests that the groups had therapeutic value for the participants. I discuss identified differences between my community music and music therapy practice, including the possibilities for individual work and use of music therapy theory. I believe that community music therapy principles were relevant to this work and in particular taking an ecological perspective was significant. Further research into community music therapy in residential care settings is recommended.