Facilitating singing groups for people with Parkinson's disease

Facilitating singing groups for people with Parkinson's disease

Group singing as an effective creative arts intervention for health and wellbeing is now a matter of global report. In terms of its efficacy as an intervention for people with Parkinson’s disease, results from a current study suggest that successful outcomes, whilst dependent on a range of factors, are particularly impacted by the skills and personal attributes of the singing group facilitator. In this paper we will discuss the results from a research study of facilitators of three singing groups operating simultaneously in South-East Queensland (Australia) in 2017. The facilitators were recruited to organize and conduct weekly singing group sessions and to document their experiences in reflective journals written over a 12-week period. The singing groups were comprised of people with varying stages of Parkinson’s disease (N=75) and their carers (N=34). Data were collected from the facilitators’ reflective journals along with transcriptions of reflections delivered as oral reports at a symposium on the impact of singing interventions for people with Parkinson’s. Analysis of the data revealed overarching themes in relation to facilitators’ skills, attributes and challenges. Preliminary findings indicate a major challenge for facilitators was the need for a thorough background knowledge of the degenerative neurological condition (Parkinson’s) and the range of symptoms that manifest with the progression of the disease. Also, whilst supporting views in the existing literature around quality of life improvements, the facilitators’ journals offered interesting observations on a range of voice function changes for singing group members.

Oral presentation.