Aldridge ,D (2002) Research Showcase, Music Therapy Today (online), December, available at http://www.musictherapyworld.net
Friday, 27. September 2002 13.00 – 13.45hr. David Aldridge welcomed the delegates, in particular professors Tony Wigram from the University of Aalborg in Denmark and Professor Denise Grocke for the University of Melbourne in Australia. We have cooperative links to both Universities through our doctoral programs. We have currently embarked upon a systematic review of the music therapy literature and compiling an online database of music therapy articles, an online music therapy research register and online evaluation tools for evaluating quantitative and qualitative research designs linked to expert opinion. Instead of using the terms “quantitative and qualitative”, we are now using “fixed and flexible” research designs. 13.45 – 14.30 hr. Simon Gilbertson reported on his planned survey of music therapy in the practice of neurosurgical rehabilitation throughout Europe. He demonstrated how searching the literature is fraught with problems when scrutinising the major published databases. He concludes that it is necessary to have a carefully thought out search strategy. 14.30 – 15.15 hr. Monika Jungblut spoke of her pioneering work “Music Therapy with Aphasic Patients in the late Rehabilitation – The Development of an Integrated Treatment. This is a small scale matched-control study of patients suffering with chronic aphasia. Her preliminary findings are that there is an improvement in the expressive capabilities following treatment compared to a no-treatment control group. The improvement in spontaneous speech is seen to have a positive influence on everyday communication. 16.00 – 16.45 hr. Wolfgang Schmid presented his current studies on Music Therapy with People suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. This too is a matched-control study of multiple sclerosis patients. Music therapy is the treatment being offered. the second part of his study is a qualitative assessment of what happens in the music therapy sessions. To this end he is using videotaped examples of material and the Therapeutic Narrative Analysis approach (see article from David Aldridge, this issue). 16.45 – 17.30 hr. Ansgar Herkenrath reported his work on with patients in a persistent vegetative state as “Meetings with the consciousness of patients in a persistent vegetative state”. He raises questions about the prevalent views that such patients are not aware of their surroundings and through a series of videotaped examples show how musical contact is achieved. He is also using videotaped examples of material and the Therapeutic Narra3