In January, our Advisory Panel of Music Therapists met to reflect on the previous year’s activities and to discuss how best we could respond to the needs of our local partners in Romania this year.

From our discussions we agreed to continue our suspension of training projects for a further twelve months. The size and design of new care settings in Romania mean that the training model is no longer as appropriate as it was when large numbers of children/adults were housed in single locations.  Our six-week training model is therefore not appropriate for equipping local staff with the skills they require to meet the needs of more transient, community-based service users. 

However, we also set out a number of projects we would undertake, including:

Annual Newsletter:  We published and circulated, in the UK and Romania, the Music as Therapy Annual Newsletter, compiled from Music Programme reports sought from our Local Partners

Competition for Local Partners (Romania):  We ran a fifth competition for our Local Partners, as an opportunity to win musical resources for their places of work.  Entrants were invited to consider the role of music in therapeutic work with people with autism.

Discretionary Grant Scheme (Techirghiol):  Following a successful application for a Discretionary Grant from Aura Filip and Seitamet Seian of the Centrul Pilot de Servicii Comunitare pentru Persoane cu Handicap si Formare de Personal, Techirghiol, we supplied the musical instruments and written materials to support them in establishing a more comprehensive music programme for the 100 residents of the Centre. 

Discretionary Grant Scheme (Centrul Tacsi, Timisoara):  Following a successful application for a Discretionary Grant from Laila Onu of Centru de Zi ‘Pentru Voi’, Timisoara, we supplied the musical instruments and written materials to support them in establishing a music programme for the adults with disabilities who attend a newly opened Day Centre.  This Grant was combined with additional training support.   

Discretionary Grant Scheme (Podul Lung, Timisoara):  Following a successful application for a Discretionary Grant from Nina Palici and Dorina Foleanu of Centru de Zi ‘Podul Lung’, Timisoara, we supplied the musical instruments and written materials to support them in establishing a music programme for the 60 children with disabilities who use Centre.  This Grant was combined with additional training support.   

Training Support (Timisoara):  A 1-week package of training support was offered to the two recipients of Discretionary Grants in Timisoara, during which we observed music sessions in action and helped Local Partners decide how best they could embed the new music resources into everyday running of the centre.

Rewarding Longterm Practice (Romania): We continued our rolling programme rewarding the long-term practice of our Local Partners as they reach their tenth anniversaries of working with music.

Building Local Capacity:  Among other initiatives, we have continued to advertise the opportunity for existing Local Partners to ‘earn’ new musical resources by organising their own peer supervision and local skill-sharing/networking events to promote the use of music in the recuperation of children and adults with special needs in Romania today.

Additional Training (Bacau):   18 Local Partners attended a two-day Additional training course which focused on Boundaries in therapeutic work with music.  This theme provided an opportunity for further discussions about working with autism and challenging behaviour.

Academic Development (Romania):  We have continued to seek out other organisations and individuals involved in the development of related training opportunities, both at a Vocational level and at a Graduate and/or Post-Graduate level, to gain insight into what role Music as Therapy might be able to play in the future development of music therapy in Romania.

Academic Development (UK):  We have continued our working partnership with Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust and Greenwich University developing two modules - “An Introduction to Music Therapy” and “Interactive Music-making as a Developmental Resource” - on a new Foundation Degree course. 

Local Resource Research Learning Log (Romania):  We invited our Local Partners to record the different sources of information, training and support which have contributed to their continuing work with music during 2008. 

International Consultancy:  We have continued to supply ad hoc consultancy for practitioners, within and beyond the Music Therapy profession, keen to learn from the experience of Music as Therapy when planning and undertaking development work overseas. 

The re-launch of Music as Therapy:  Our vision is for MasT International to become a hub of international projects rooted in Music Therapy.  We want to help facilitate the delivery of projects which are taking therapeutic music-making to new communities across the world:  Projects which, without this experienced and clinically-focused support, might not reach their true potential. 

 We have more details and reports available on all of these activities, please send us an e-mail if you would like further information.