[Social-sciences-list] Introduction, then a serious question

[Kaiti Shelton]

Thanks all, if anyone has ideas, I'd still be interested in hearing them.

 RC/Claire, please do keep me posted on what your contacts think about
 this.  Thanks for spreading the message around.



On 11/10/14, Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks all, if anyone has ideas, I'd still be interested in hearing them.
>
> RC/Claire, please do keep me posted on what your contacts think about
> this.  Thanks for spreading the message around.
>
> On 11/10/14, Rakesh Chand <chand at connect.com.fj> wrote:
>> Sounds very interesting 	
>>
>>
>> I'm a totally blind person with guitar skills and am now trying piano and
>> to
>> find resources is fairly difficult.
>>
>>
>> Please keep me informed as I never looked at music as a therapy even
>> though
>> it has helped me to relax and keep away from stress of mainstream work,
>> family and daily leaving!
>>
>>
>> Do keep up the wonderful work...
>>
>>
>> Rakesh all the way from:
>> Fiji in the South Pacific
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Social-sciences-list
>> [mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>> On Behalf Of Kaiti Shelton via Social-sciences-list
>> Sent: Monday, 10 November 2014 5:55 p.m.
>> To: social-sciences-list at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [Social-sciences-list] Introduction, then a serious question
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Some of you may have seen me around on other lists; I'm a junior music
>> therapy major, and the president of the Ohio Association of Blind
>> Students.
>> In case you're wondering what music therapy is, it is the evidence-based
>> use
>> of music to address individualized goals through music and therapeutic
>> relationships, carried out by a professional who has completed an
>> approved
>> music therapy training program and earned board-certification by passing
>> an
>> exam for accreditation.  To simplify that, in my field I will use music
>> to
>> address musical and nonmusical goals, including gait regulation, memory
>> recall, enforcing positive behavior in children, improving social skills,
>> improving/maintaining quality of life, increasing fine and gross motor
>> skills, improving appropriate communication, etc.  I'm a lot more like a
>> physical or occupational therapist than a music teacher or performer,
>> because I do keep track of data and evidence to back up research and keep
>> track of progress.  End plug, but if you have any questions about what
>> music
>> therapy is, feel free to ask.  I'm really looking forward to interacting
>> on
>> this list.  I have been on the human services list for quite a while, but
>> I'm wondering if social science might be a little more in-line with what
>> I'm
>> going to talk about in the next paragraph.
>> I'm also working towards a minor in psychology, so that's another reason
>> why
>> I joined.
>>
>> Anyway, the serious stuff that I mentioned.  I just returned home from
>> the
>> national conference for AMTA, the American Music Therapy Association.  I
>> had
>> a great time overall, and learned a lot, but it is one of the things I've
>> learned that has me really worried about some ethical concerns I see.  I
>> went to a session on Friday night called Musical skills and competencies:
>> essential or not?  The AMTA has established competencies which all music
>> therapy students must meet in order to earn certification, but there is
>> no
>> standard protocol or guidelines for accommodating when students with
>> disabilities have to make modifications.
>>
>> The presenter used a student who is currently a senior in her program as
>> an
>> example (with the student's permission).  This student lost her left hand
>> due to cancer when she was a kid, and is now looking for music therapy
>> internships.  It was apparent when she came to the school for music
>> therapy
>> that guitar just wouldn't be an option for her, since one hand needs to
>> play
>> chords and the other strums.  The professor, having no idea what to do
>> for
>> this situation, called AMTA.
>> They told her, "You'll have to decide how to accommodate her."  They
>> offered
>> this professor no guidance, no suggestions, not a single clue about what
>> should be done to make sure this student can get the competency.  So, the
>> professor accommodated by letting the student use an IPad app to create
>> the
>> sound of a guitar in her sessions.
>> Otherwise, she's a really good music therapist in the making, and can
>> apparently play piano very well.  Aside from one hand being missing and
>> guitar in the traditional sense being a problem, there is nothing that
>> suggests to this professor that this student wouldn't be an exceptional
>> therapist.  However, she has had to have conversations with the student,
>> in
>> which she has had to explain that the accommodation process for music
>> therapy students is completely subjective.  The professor sees the IPad
>> as
>> an accommodation to meet the guitar competency, but an internship
>> director
>> might see that the competency is unmet and not take this student into
>> their
>> program because of it.  The professor expressed worry, because on one
>> hand
>> she wants this girl to succeed and knows her skills, but doesn't want to
>> set
>> her up for failure if no one else agrees with her on accommodations in an
>> internship.  On the one hand, she wants to believe that music therapy can
>> be
>> an accessible career to those with disabilities, but she also feels like
>> she
>> needs to be a gatekeeper for the competencies so the integrity of the
>> field
>> is maintained, and the integrity of the college is upheld.  She's very
>> worried because she realizes that as music therapy has grown, more and
>> more
>> students with disabilities are going to be coming into the field.
>> Competencies just keep getting added to the litany, but none have been
>> taken
>> away or modified.
>>
>> I had a situation last semester, where my professors didn't know how to
>> accommodate me in documentation.  While this session focused on
>> accommodating for the music competencies, the problem is still the same.
>> I
>> question how on Earth a profession which accommodates for individual
>> client
>> needs on a daily basis around the world doesn't have policies in place
>> for
>> accommodating students with disabilities who wish to become
>> professionals?
>> How is it okay that there is no standard system in place for this?  I
>> understand every student is a case-by-case basis really, but there is
>> nothing at all for professors to go by, so they don't know what is okay
>> and
>> what is breaching the competencies.  I wonder how many students have been
>> held back for one reason or another, because they couldn't meet a
>> competency
>> in the cookie-cutter way due to their disability?  But let me tell you
>> the
>> kicker in all of this; let's say that student X with the hand problem is
>> hypothetically told by someone that she can't get an internship because
>> she
>> can't actually play guitar.  After the internship and completion of the
>> college program for music therapy, all students must take an exam to earn
>> certification.  The exam does not test musical skill at all.  To my
>> knowledge it also does not test one's ability to actively assess clients,
>> which is the issue I ran into last semester when I was having difficulty
>> providing visual feedback on my group.
>>
>> As a student, I understand why we have the competencies.  This is a
>> profession that has had to advocate itself to death for the past 60 or so
>> years because it is so new and out of a typical person's norm, but if we
>> keep making it harder by adding competencies and pushing out potential
>> therapists with disabilities, I think detriment will be done to the
>> field.
>> The whole reason I learned about music therapy was because I worked with
>> a
>> blind music therapist as a child.  She taught me to be okay with the fact
>> that I was different from my sighted classmates, emphasized the
>> importance
>> of using braille and a cane, and encouraged me to practice music.  When I
>> got older, she was a role model I could talk to about general blindness
>> issues, and was a mentor once I figured out I wanted to go into music
>> therapy.  I remember being 8 or 9 years old, and worrying about how I
>> would
>> go to the grocery store by myself when I was older.  I think she and I
>> had
>> a
>> closer therapist-client relationship because she was someone I could ask
>> questions that others wouldn't understand.  I am hoping to do the same
>> thing
>> for other students with disabilities who may become my clients, and it
>> would
>> be a shame if others with disabilities can't serve as role models and
>> mentors to their clients.
>>
>> Is it ethical for a profession which strives to accommodate clients to
>> push
>> those who have disabilities and want to be a part of the striving away?
>> To
>> me, that says that I as a blind person am good enough to receive services
>> from a music therapist, but I'm not good enough to be a provider, and if
>> I
>> modify a competency so that I get the same basic result but in a
>> different
>> way I'm not actually a complete music therapist.  I personally don't
>> think
>> it is sound, but there are those who cling to the clinical competencies
>> like
>> ethically, it is the most important thing to protect them.  I'm not
>> saying
>> that protecting the integrity of the competencies isn't important, but
>> for
>> students with disabilities there has to be some middle ground.
>>
>> I don't quite know what to do about this.  I've emailed a bunch of people
>> to
>> start a think tank, which includes one blind and one sighted music
>> therapist, a socialworker who is their supervisor, a woman I know who
>> knows
>> more than I thought there was to know about disability rights for
>> students,
>> and my state NFB president, but other than that I'm stumped.  This issue
>> really bothers me, but I also want to take it easy since I still have yet
>> to
>> get through my own training and figure out my own accommodation issues.
>> Thoughts?
>>
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>
>
> --
> Kaiti
>


-- 
Kaiti