Making Music for Mental Health

A growing body of evidence points to a wide range of mental health benefits that accompany music making. Less is known, however, of the potential benefits for the musicians who facilitate such work. In a professional culture where musicians are expected to maintain the highest of international performing standards, we know that physical and psychological distress are prevalent among both music students and seasoned professionals.

This project explored the notion that music students, professional musicians, and mental health service users and their carers can - through the creative act of music learning and performing - mutually enhance wellbeing through the development of more meaningful and resilient lives. The project sought to explore three interconnected issues:

1. the extent to which group drumming provides a forum for 'mutual recovery' among adult mental health service users, their formal/informal carers, and musicians
2. the characteristic features of 'mutual recovery' through music learning and performing
3. the underlying mechanisms of such 'mutual recovery'

The project had at its core multiple intervention programmes of group drumming, facilitated by professional and student musicians and open to adult mental health service users and their formal/informal carers. Adopting a mixed-methods strategy, quantitative and qualitative data was collected throughout each intervention programme via both validated and specially-devised questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and saliva samples.