For you Minneapolis/St. Paul area music therapists:
Upcoming events at Sound Matters Music Therapy
Meeting of Minneapolis Music Therapists
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
7:30 PM
Presenting
I am thrilled that tonight I was asked whether or not I am interested in presenting on music therapy to a monthly meeting of families with children who have Down’s syndrome. Thrilled. I look forward to this opportunity, should it come to fruition (I haven’t been officially invited yet). I’ve wanted to present for a long time; this would be a great beginning.
Music Therapists Unite!
I am excited that a meeting I had organized tonight went really well. I invited all of the music therapists I know personally who live in Minneapolis and its surrounding areas to get together and catch up, share knowledge, and plan for future meetings. I found a space to hold the get-together, which, unfortunately, didn’t prove to be ideal. I am so happy we got together, though.
Beyond re-connecting and sharing where we’re working and what we’re doing, we talked about CEUs, supporting each other in performance endeavors, and what we want out of this group in the future. None of us happened to be very versed in how, when, or where to obtain our CEUs, so we’ve decided that our next meeting’s big topic will be learning just that.
Ideally, we’ll have time to make music together in some fashion. Tonight, we didn’t.
My work in the care center
I work with two populations: People in assisted living, care center, and transitional care units; and people with developmental disabilities. I suppose I could break down the populations even further by considering age groups. Certainly, I work with the elderly — that is pretty clear — and I work with young children with developmental disabilities as well as young adults with such delays.
I imagine there is a reader or two who does not know much about music therapy, or perhaps how music therapy applies to those residents and clients I see.
So, how do I provide music therapy in my work in the care center?
I’ll try to tell you, in broad terms.
I see approximately 250 residents in the care center where I work. (I am separating the TCU from this group.) These residents are spread throughout the building, and include people who live in a memory care unit, a palliative care unit, and some residents who are functioning with much more independence. I see residents who live in each unit at least once a week, and usually they are in large (sometimes very large) groups. There are so many considerations that are involved in fashioning these groups. For instance, in the palliative care unit, I gather my residents in a group, but essentially I see them 1:1. However, in another group, I try to bring out people who are known for being social and conversational and combine them with people who are known for being reclusive (who also seem to enjoy or benefit from music). So, this being said, one of my major considerations is how big my groups should be.
Sometimes I don’t have a choice. Sometimes, like today, I have a great group together, and a nurse’s aid takes two of my residents from the group. And then the group dynamic falls apart. Or, they just drop residents off in the room where I’m facilitating, and leave them way off in the periphery of the room.
But, that’s for another post (maybe).
Once I have a group assembled, I begin the session with a unifying, familiar “hello song.” I follow this with another group experience. Then, if I’ve determined I have at least 80% active participation from the group as a whole, I move to 1:1 interactions that I use to tie one part of the circle/group to another portion of it. I try to bring the session to a close with another group experience or song, and then I close with a known “good-bye song.”
Each week, I target one domain (cognitive, physical, social, emotional, etc.) for the whole care center. I’d love to have more time to plan, though at this point, I don’t. But, each day I write up goals for each group that I see that day, using a planing template I created for my care center work.
I may elaborate on certain factions of my day, should anyone be curious. I just happen to know that some people might not know what goals I have for my work in the care center.
Developing a pattern
As I’ve mentioned in another post, A plan to plan, I have to design my experiences to have a good deal of reuse power (thanks to JoAnn Jordan of Music Sparks for that term). I try to focus on a single domain throughout the week, but now I’m thinking of designating certain days of the week for certain domains. For instance, Tuesdays I might hone in on the social domain, Wednesdays, gross motor, etc.
Does anyone else, who works in care centers as I do, develop your goals in this way? Or do you decide on a day-to-day basis?
A plan to plan
Because I do not have much time in a given day to plan for my upcoming sessions at the care center, I am always excited when I come up with something novel and engaging. I have approximately 20 minutes at the beginning of the day to put together my entire day’s doings, and most days I facilitate five group sessions of 10 to 20 residents with a wide range of ability. So, to bridge this gap in preparation time, I’ve come up with a variety of techniques. One technique I use is to focus on one domain for the entire week, and then fashion a series of similar experiences that I adapt for the group for which I’m facilitating (may sound like common sense/knowledge, but I stressed about this for weeks). This week, I’ve designed an experience that went really well with a group of my most independent residents, and has also been very successful with my memory care group (whom I see daily).
Anyway, my point is that it took a great deal of planning to compensate for the lack of time I actually have to plan!
Does anyone else have similar challenges? How much time do you spend planning?