Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery: Making Music for Mental Health
IRAS ID
134562
Contact name
Aaron Williamon
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Research summary
This study explores the hypothesis that adults with mental health problems, their carers and musicians can - through the creative act of music learning and performing - mutually enhance well-being through the development of more meaningful and resilient lives (what we term ’mutual recovery’). The project seeks to explore three interconnected issues: (i) the extent to which music learning and performing provides a forum for ’mutual recovery’ among adults with mental health problems, their formal/informal carers, and musicians, (ii) the characteristic features of ’mutual recovery’ through music, and (iii) the underlying mechanisms of such ’mutual recovery’.
The study will consist of three different stages. Stages 1 and 2 will examine the effect of a variety of creative group activities – including participatory music, listening to live music, listening to recorded music and a non-music control – on psychological scales, saliva samples of stress hormones and cytokines, and subjective experience to see which provide the most relaxing, sociable and supportive environments for mutual recovery. Stage 3 will explore the impact of the most promising musical interventions over longer periods of time.
A systematic review we have recently carried out has revealed a major gap in research comparing different music interventions and testing the effects of different lengths of interventions. As a result, our study should help us answer the following questions:
• Which aspect(s) of music can contribute to mutual recovery, and how?
• Do carers, patients and musicians all respond to the same activities, or do some musical activities suit certain groups more than others?
• Do carers, patients and musicians all recover at the same rate?
• What length of intervention is most effective?Results could help guide community groups and healthcare settings in their design of music activities and have implications for the spending of arts-in-health budgets.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/1231
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion