Australian Music Therapy Association

Sending best wishes to all our colleagues in occupational therapy this Occupational Therapy Week. It's a double celebration this year, as Occupational Therapy Australia celebrates 80 years of connection. Congratulations all round. Occupational therapists use a whole-person perspective to work with individuals, groups and communities to achieve optimal health and wellbeing through participation in all the everyday things we do in our life. #OTWeek2024 #80YearsOfConnection #OccupationalTherapy #MusicTherapy #AlliedHealth 📷 In a well-equipped gym, a young person does play therapy with two occupational therapists. Text: "21-27 October 2024 OT Week. Celebrating 80 years of connection. #80YearsOfConnection" Logo: Occupational Therapy Australia".

AMTA is pleased to see further recognition of registered music therapists by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission in its publication, 'Quality supports for children in the NDIS'. The new booklet is designed for families and carers of children who are NDIS participants. It aims to help families identify quality supports. Page 3 states: "Providers or their staff may also need to register with a relevant professional body to practice in Australia... A music therapist must be registered with the Australian Music Therapy Association (AMTA)." Registered music therapists are uniquely qualified to use music as a therapeutic intervention. This resource recognises the value and specialist skills of registered music therapists and the important role AMTA plays in ensuring safety and quality for NDIS participants. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gx_WMeZD #NationalDisabilityInsuranceScheme #NDIS #Disability #MusicTherapy 📷 The cover of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission publication 'Quality support for children in the NDIS: a resource for parents and carers'. Accompanying text: "A music therapist must be registered with the AMTA."

Great news: registered music therapist and AMTA member Ash Rowbottom is featured on Health Translation Queensland's new Mental Health Workforce Hub. Launched on World Mental Health Day, the hub showcases the wealth of career opportunities in the sector. Designed for anyone starting or advancing their career, it tells inspiring stories of mental health professionals making a difference - like our Ash! She says it's a privilege to journey alongside her clients. "It’s being there to support them through significant life events, high times and low times, as well as the growth that comes with them getting to know themselves as a person. On top of that, it’s the sharing of music and the creativity that comes with human connection." To read the rest of Ash's interview, visit the Mental Health Workforce Hub. https://lnkd.in/g2jXRUaf 📷 Ash Rowbottom RMT at the launch of Health Translation Queensland's Mental Health Workforce Hub. #MentalHealth #MusicTherapy #AlliedHealth #Queensland #RegisteredMusicTherapist #WorldMentalHealthDay | Queensland Health

Music therapy is an allied health professional, and we're thrilled to show our support for Allied Health Professions Day. Like registered music therapists, our multidisciplinary colleagues work across a range of health and community settings with people from all walks of life. They cover disciplines as wide-ranging as audiology and counselling to podiatry and speech pathology. In fact, we think it's likely you'll come across an allied health professional most days of the week. So give them an extra shout-out today - whether you run into an exercise physiologist, optometrist or occupational therapist. Thanks Allied Health Professions Australia for Allied Health Professions Day. #AHPsDay2024 #StrongerTogether #AlliedHealthProfessionsDay #AlliedHealth #MusicTherapy Text: "Multidisciplinary team care is the key to health and wellbeing in Australia. We're stronger together. Allied Health Professions Day. Monday 14 October." A headshot of a smiling allied health professional, made up of smaller tiled images of allied health professionals. Allied Health Professions Day logo. AHPA logo.

🎺 This World Mental Health Day, we are blowing our own trumpet! Around half of Australia's 900 or so registered music therapists work in the mental health sector, helping people use music to express emotions, manage stress and improve overall wellbeing. Music therapy is more than just listening to your favourite song. It’s a powerful, evidence-based therapy that can be part of your multidisciplinary allied health team. Registered music therapists collaborate with psychologists, social workers and other health professionals to create personalised, music-based interventions tailored to each person’s needs. 💡 Whether you’re exploring new ways to support your own mental health or someone else's, music therapy can offer meaningful benefits that can help with social connection, cognitive support, mood regulation and more. 👉 Learn more about how music therapy can support mental health on our website : https://lnkd.in/g3Y9NR4W 📷 A grey-haired woman blows a toy plastic trumpet. The World Mental Health Day logo is in the corner. #WorldMentalHealthDay #MusicTherapy #AlliedHealth #MentalHealthSupport #RegisteredMusicTherapists | World Federation for Mental Health | Mental Health Australia

After the recent update to the NDIS legislation, the status of music therapy did not change. Music therapy is still an evidence-based allied health profession that continues to be an NDIS-funded therapeutic support. For NDIS participants to use funding for music therapy, it must be provided by an active registered music therapist with the Australian Music Therapy Association. To learn more, we invite you to read our statement: https://lnkd.in/gKWruqhR 📷 Text: "Music therapy is an NDIS-funded therapeutic support". Background image: a person playing a drum. #NDIS #MusicTherapy #Disability #RegisteredMusicTherapist #AlliedHealth

Imagine being a parent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where everything is unfamiliar, and your baby is fighting to grow. In this challenging space, music therapy offers an extraordinary way to connect with your baby - through the simple, yet powerful, sound of your voice. 🎵 In our latest blog, AMTA member Maybelle Swaney RMT, shares her personal and professional journey in NICU music therapy, revealing how something as ordinary as a parent's voice can support a baby’s development, strengthen emotional bonds, and provide comfort during this critical time. 💕 Discover how music therapists are making a difference for pre-term babies and their families, and how you can use your voice to help your baby thrive. 👉 Read the full story https://lnkd.in/gFG7zvGh #MusicTherapy #NeonatalCare #NICU #NeonatalIntensiveCareUnit 📷 Text: "Sounds familiar". In the background, a woman's hands play guitar, above a baby blanket. In a separate panel, a headshot of Maybelle Swaney RMT.

Congratulations to AMTA member Professor Katrina McFerran RMT on the recent publication of The Psychology of Music Listening for Health and Wellbeing Professionals. Co-authored with Carol Lotter, the book is designed as a support for practitioners. Kat said it includes the work of diverse professionals from around the globe. "We generated engaging illustrations of using music with people in practice, combined with recommendations based on our combined decades of applied practice in hospitals, schools, community organisations, and universities as music therapists, researchers and educators," she said. If you're a practitioner looking to be informed by the latest research on using music listening in your work, this is a terrific resource. AMTA member Kat McFerran is Professor and Head of Creative Arts Therapy at University of Melbourne, Australia. She is a world-renowned author and researcher. #MusicTherapy #CreativeArtsTherapy #AlliedHealth #RegisteredMusicTherapist #AustMTA 📷 Three panels: 1, the cover of the book called The Psychology of Music Listening for Health and Wellbeing Professionals; 2, Professor Kat McFerran RMT; co-author Carol Lotter

As we celebrate the International Day of Older Persons, it's a timely reminder that a recent Royal Commission listed music therapy as a core service for residential aged care. Recommendation 38 of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety Final Report requires residential aged care facilities to employ or retain appropriate allied health professionals, including music therapists. Evidence shows that music therapy provided by a registered music therapist dramatically improves health outcomes, experiences and quality of life for older people and their carers. The positive outcomes of music therapy for older people and the aged care sector warrant its inclusion in residential and home-based aged care. Now is the time to provide older Australians with non-pharmacological, non-invasive approaches to improve their experiences and care. Under-utilising music therapy limits potential positive outcomes for older people and their carers. To learn more about the benefits of music therapy for older Australians, view our factsheet: https://lnkd.in/gYf9RXda #UNIDOP #InternationalDayOfOlderPersons #MusicTherapy #RoyalCommission #AgedCare #AlliedHealth

It's International Day of Older Persons, and we'd like to acknowledge registered music therapists who work with older people - like Catherine Threlfall RMT, who runs intergenerational music therapy programs in aged care settings in regional Victoria. One of the places Catherine visits is a purpose-built childcare centre attached to a nursing home in a small town. When it opened in 2020, it was only the second of its kind in Australia. "The director of the nursing home was inspired by what he saw in our weekly music sessions with residents and families, and he forged the way forward to build the groundbreaking centre," she said. It has since become a hub for community-building, such as the friendship between Ernie and Charlie. "Ernie is a well-known older resident of our region, who played in country music bands around town for many years," Catherine explained. "He brings his guitar every Friday to our intergenerational music session. Young Charlie was inspired to regularly bring along his own guitar to jam with Ernie and me." Evidence shows that music therapy can be a game-changer in aged care. It assists with communication, and it helps people living with dementia, depression, neurodegenerative disease and more. Thank you to all our members who do this important work, which ties in with the goals of the United Nations to ensure older people have opportunities for engagement, participation, lifelong learning, quality healthcare and intergenerational relationships. #UNIDOP #InternationalDayOfOlderPersons #MusicTherapy #RegisteredMusicTherapist 📷 Three people hold guitars and smile at the camera. They are Ernie, an older person; Charlie, a child; and Catherine, a registered music therapist and AMTA member.