Music, Health and Wellbeing Exploring Music for Health Equity and Social Justice

This book explores the power music has to address health inequalities and the social determinants of health and wellbeing. It examines music participation as a determinant of wellbeing and as a transformative tool to impact on wider social, cultural and environmental conditions. Uniquely, in this volume health and wellbeing outcomes are conceptualised on a continuum, with potential effects identified in relation to individual participants, their communities but also society at large. While arts therapy approaches have a clear place in the text, the emphasis is on music making outside of clinical contexts and the broader roles musicians, music facilitators and educators can play in enhancing wellbeing in a range of settings beyond the therapy room. This innovative edited collection will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of music, social services, medical humanities, education and the broader health field in the social and medical sciences.

Chapter 1. Introduction; Naomi Sunderland, Natalie Lewandowski, Dan Bendrups, Brydie-Leigh Bartleet.- Chapter 2. Music, public health, and health promotion: Can music be a social determinant of health?; Donald Stewart and Yoon Irons.- Chapter 3; Social and applied psychological explorations of music, health and well-being; Jane Davidson and Amanda Krause.- Chapter 4. Promoting social inclusion, equity and well-being for young people with Autism Spectrum Condition: A community music facilitator (and parent) perspective; Michael Wheelan.- Chapter 5. Depression and music: Approaching health equity through therapeutic choir singing; Kirsten Robertson-Gillam.- Chapter 6. Health and well-being benefits of singing for older people; Stephen Clift, Rebekah Gilbert, and Trish Vella-Burrows.- Chapter 7. Community music research and evaluation through a social determinants lens; Naomi Sunderland, Lauren Istvandity, Ali Lakhani, and Caroline Lennette.- Chapter 8. ‘Being here’: Equity through musical engagement with people with Dementia; Rineke Smilde.- Chapter 9. Rama and the Worm: A performance-based approach to health promotion in rural Indonesia; Dan Bendrups, Donald Stewart, and Joko Susilo.- Chapter 10. Community arts, employment and poverty: Exploring the roles of musical participation and professionalisation in health equity; Klisala Harrison.- Chapter 11. How can arts participation promote Indigenous social determinants of health?; Brydie-Leigh Bartleet, Naomi Sunderland, and Ali Lakhani.- Chapter 12. Achieving health equity and social justice through music: Music as a global resource; Barbara Hesser and Harry N. Heinemann.- Chapter 13; Medical ethnomusicology and the promise of music, health and healing; Benjamin D. Koen.- Chapter 14. Weapons of mass happiness: Social justice and health equity in the context of the arts; Clive Parkinson.

Naomi Sunderland is Senior Lecturer in the School of Human Services and Social Work at the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University, Australia.

Dan Bendrups is a Lecturer in the Research Education and Development team at Latrobe University, Australia. He has produced numerous publications on music and heritage, performance research theory and practice.

Natalie Lewandowski is the editor of Screen Sound Journal – The Australasian Journal of Soundtrack Studies, she teaches in screen sound, public and media relations and Australian contemporary art.

Brydie-Leigh Bartleet is Director of the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre Griffith University, Australia and Co-Chair of the International Society for Music Education’s Community Music Activities Commission.