Kirkwood, Sandra. (2011). Community recovery: musical inspirations, creative collaborations, and health reform. Presented on 15 July, 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

1. COMMUNITY RECOVERY: MUSICAL INSPIRATIONS, CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS, AND HEALTH REFORM Sandra Kirkwood, B.Occ.Thy, B.Music, M.Phil. 15 July, 2011 Music Health Australia

2. Community Recovery – Qld Floods

3. 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.

4. Role of Music Health Professionals Can be any discipline appropriately qualified to: Adapt to impairment of body structure and disease Enhance functional ability to be able to participate in music activities Optimise environments to support music health and well-being Promote physical, social, and cultural access Engage in product design and development Research, plan and develop policy to maximise health and well-being in music/health industry

5. 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 Music Health Australia

6. 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?

7. 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).

8. 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. Music Health Australia

9. Advertising Music Health Australia

10. 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) Music Health Australia

11. Location of song creators Music Health Australia

12. Methods Monitored through e-mail dialogue with volunteers Collated descriptive feedback Supportive counselling. Facilitation & multi-media recording by volunteers. Cost: Minimal-online support Evaluation and reporting. Music Health Australia

13. Performances initiated by community: 7 March 4 April Leichhardt-One Mile Community Centre Music Health Australia

14. 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 Tholens Video by Rod Taylor – consent limited.

15. 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.”

16. Creative Process Music Health Australia

17. Gantt Chart–timeline Music Health Australia

18. Analysis of Lyrics – peoples perceptions Music Health Australia

19. 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. Music Health Australia

20. 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. Music Health Australia

21. Outcome – Role of Music Health Music Health professionals important role in: Initiating, contributing, facilitating Enabling the creative collaboration; Being available for supportive counselling, ethics review - MOU Mediating the creative process Encouraging buoyancy, resilience and re-building of communities. Supporting community transition Music Health Australia

22. Recommendations Responses need to be: Effectively monitored/channelled to maximise effectiveness and safety Supported by all levels of government Implemented by well-informed professionals in community collaboration Integrated with the broader place-based disaster response Planned & evaluated during and after crisis Critical reflection on practice is of value. Evidence-based research vs action research Role flexibility: enhances transition/relocation. Music Health Australia

23. Further Recommendations Analyse community cultural development - crisis Critically review further case studies Draft regional guidelines for response and communication involving arts/music professionals Develop Action Plans – service integration Budget 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”

24. Music Health Australiawww.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