Community mental health musictherapy: A consumer-initiated song-based paradigm (en français)

Abstract

In 1997, a music therapy program was first piloted in a community mental health clubhouse and six months later expanded to five community mental health group homes, all administrated by an accredited agency in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. This agency serves persons with a diagnosis of chronic and persistent mental illness and adheres to a consumer-initiated model of practice. In an article published in the Canadian Journal of Music Therapy, Baines (2000) described the predominantly song-based approach of that program and documented a consumer evaluation of it, concluding that the client-centred empowerment model of consumer inclusiveness described appeared to contribute significantly to the rehabilitative effect of the program. In this article, the authors report on the current status of the program, including new data from surveys of consumers and staff as well as in-depth consumer interviews regarding their awareness of how and why the consumer-initiated, song-based music therapy program is effective for them.