Unhoused persons: Perspectives on music therapy treatment, outcomes, and effectiveness
| dc.contributor.author | Lahue, Katie | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-06-12T14:48:09Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-06-12T14:48:09Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Thousands of people are without adequate housing in the United States (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2016). This population suffers from a complex set of needs and, outside of housing services and minimal mental health services, are not being served. Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs as well as the theory of the optimal healing environment (Samueli Institute, 2013) and resilience can be used to understand how to meet the needs of unhoused persons through other services. Music therapy has been successful in meeting some of the needs of unhoused persons in a few cases (Curreri, 2016; Fairchild, Thompson, & McFerran, 2017; Iliya, 2011; Staum, 1993). However, there is a lack of literature to support the use of music therapy with unhoused persons. This researcher aimed to gather information from music therapists who work with unhoused persons to discover the outcomes of the music therapy treatment process. Three music therapists were interviewed; interviews were then transcribed and coded to find themes regarding outcomes of music therapy with unhoused persons. The four themes derived from the data were: increased resilience factors, facilitating connections, creating a safe space, and increased expression. All three participants reported that music therapy is an effective treatment method with the unhoused population. Results support music therapy meeting all levels of human need (Maslow, 1954) in some way, while also creating an optimal healing environment (Samueli Institute, 2013) and increasing resiliency with unhoused persons. Therefore, music therapy could be an effective treatment method with unhoused persons. These results points to a need for more research to understand the benefits of specific music therapy techniques and treatment methods with unhoused persons and subgroups of the unhoused population. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12770/137 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.subject | Music therapy | |
| dc.subject | Homeless persons | |
| dc.title | Unhoused persons: Perspectives on music therapy treatment, outcomes, and effectiveness | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| dc.type.degreename | Master of Arts in Music Therapy |