COMMUNITY RECOVERY: MUSICAL INSPIRATIONS,

CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS, AND

HEALTH REFORM

Sandra Kirkwood, B.Occ.Thy, B.Music, M.Phil.

15 July, 2011

Music Health Australia

Community Recovery – Qld Floods

Towns affected in Qld,

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

News ReportsABCPhotoGallery

NASA Earth Observatory

Role of Occupational Therapists

The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate successfully in the activities of everyday life.

This enhances longer term national capacity and self-reliance in disaster affected countries and beyond.

Role of Music Health Professionals

Can be any discipline appropriately qualified to:Adapt to impairment of body structure and

diseaseEnhance functional ability to be able to

participate in music activitiesOptimise environments to support music

health and well-beingPromote physical, social, and cultural accessEngage in product design and developmentResearch, plan and develop policy to

maximise health and well-being in music/health industry

Aims of Action Research

Community recovery sing-a-long

Initiated through Music Health email group & professional networking with communities

From 31 January-30 June, 2011. Aim for maximum social health impact for minimal input.

Record & share learnings

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Research Questions

What capacity does community have for creating/singing songs to support recovery?

What is appropriate role for Music Health professionals in crisis with limited resources?

What occurred in this case study? Who participated? What did we learn?How does this inform future

practice/research?

Precedents – Literature Review

Fire Cycle by Bev McAlister, Victoria, Dandenong Ranges.

World Federation of Occupational Therapists Situational Analysis of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster (2004).

Methods

Invited community members & professionals in Brisbane, Toowoomba and Ipswich

To create verses about their own flood experience to the tune of "Click! Goes the Shears.“

Supported by occupational therapist/ ethnomusicologist.

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Participants: 8 Song Creators

Chair – Indigenous Corporation (B)Life Line counsellor (B)Counsellor in private practice (I)Behaviour support teacher (I)Occupational Therapist / Musician (I)Teacher / Parent of child with LD (I)Community volunteer – singer (I)Student Nurse (T)

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Location of song creators

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Methods

Monitored through e-mail dialogue with volunteers

Collated descriptive feedbackSupportive counselling.Facilitation & multi-media recording by volunteers.

Cost: Minimal-online supportEvaluation and reporting.

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Leichhardt-One Mile Community Centre

Performances initiated by community:

7 March4 April

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Sing-a-long Participants

About 12 people participated in singing Age range from 20's to 70's, with one

child of about 10yrs; Multicultural group, all members of

Support Links;A few members were affected by the

flood, and others had supported people who had been affected by the floods;

Facilitated by Astrid TholensVideo by Rod Taylor – consent limited.

Feedback from group facilitator

“I felt the singing of the song was enjoyed by all, but all were stressed about being filmed and the possibility of being shown on the internet;

took a while to practise the song, and work out the phrasing with the music,

some felt it was too long.”

Crisis •Observation & keeping abreast of latest news•Planning with stakeholders

Response•Invitation to participate in social action•Support and enabling•Monitoring and review

Outcomes •Evaluation•Critical reflection on practice

•Reporting•Place-based planning with stakeholders•Contributed to local government Community Plan

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Creative Process

Gantt Chart–timeline

EVENT ON TIMELINE JAN FEB MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULYFlood ToowoombaFlood IpswichFlood BrisbaneLiterature review - FaceBookMet with local government & com'yAdvised professionals/email groupsInvited people to participateEmail log of feedback/responseObtained consent of song creators

Song creators lyrics posted on webAdvised local governments of progressMonitoring news & developmentsEmail contact with participants/peersMet with facilitators/interested peopleMet with DoC flood recovery managerCommunity group volunteered to performDate of first performanceCollaborative changes to lyrics-remote

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Analysis of Lyrics – peoples perceptions

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You can sing your own flood story to the tune of “Click! Goes the Shears”

Critical reflection on practice

The process was a significant innovation toward reforming health care

Introduced a remote method of community-based rehabilitation service delivery.

Creative Community response – community has capacity to assist in recovery.

Limited professional capacity to assist community members.

Challenge: Integration with whole place-based response; inter-agency communication.

Time-limited response. Long term services.

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Outcomes – benefits

A new way of supporting communities to self-manage their own social and emotional recovery after flood disaster.

Music Health professional can inspire community engagement and support the creative collaboration through remote email networking – to a limited degree.

Low cost CBR intervention that was carried out by volunteers in the absence of funding allocated to community music projects or research.

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Outcome – Role of Music Health

Music Health professionals important role in:

Initiating, contributing, facilitatingEnabling the creative collaboration;Being available for supportive

counselling, ethics review - MOUMediating the creative process Encouraging buoyancy, resilience

and re-building of communities. Supporting community transition

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Recommendations

Responses need to be: Effectively monitored/channelled to maximise

effectiveness and safetySupported by all levels of governmentImplemented by well-informed professionals in

community collaborationIntegrated with the broader place-based disaster

responsePlanned & evaluated during and after crisisCritical reflection on practice is of value.Evidence-based research vs action researchRole flexibility: enhances transition/relocation.

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Further Recommendations

Analyse community cultural development - crisisCritically review further case studiesDraft regional guidelines for response and

communication involving arts/music professionalsDevelop Action Plans – service integrationBudget for skill development and training to

support Creative Communities and involvement of music health professionals

Consider frameworks for culturally engaged community music (Kirkwood, 2009 thesis).

Allow communities to self-organise response in their chosen time frame: “Call the tune”

Music Health Australia

www.musichealth.com.au kirkwood13@bigpond.com

CITATION FOR THIS PRESENTATION

Kirkwood S. (2011). Community recovery: musical inspirations, creative collaborations, and health reform. In: 2011 Primary Health Care Research Conference: Program & Abstracts. Primary Health Care Research and Information Service, Australia. www.phcris.org.au/conference/browse.php?id=7048