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Music therapy for rural regions

People living in rural areas tend to have shorter lives and higher levels of illness and disease risk factors than those in major cities. It is also true that,on average, people living in rural Australia do not always have the same opportunities for good health as those living in major cities. For example, residents of more inaccessible areas of Australia are generally disadvantaged in their access to good and services, educational and employment opportunities and income.

In contrast, rural Australians generally have higher levels of social cohesiveness, for example, higher rates of participation in volunteer work and feelings of safety in their community.

Clear differences exist in health service usage between areas. Risk factors higher, lower rates of health consultations, higher rates of hospital admission, inter-regional differences in risk factors. Higher death rates and poorer health outcomes reflect the higher proportions of the populations in those areas who areAboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Dr Valentine said the Keep Them Safe five-year-action plan, from 2009-2014, wasdeveloped in response to recommendations from the Special Commission of Inquiryinto Child Protection Services in NSW.

She said there was always a shortage of good, quality services to provide help f

or families that faced difficulties with housing, employment or disability.

"What is encouraging though is that those involved in supporting families are taking their responsibilities very seriously," she said.

Asked if the situation was improving for children on the Northern Rivers, Dr Valentine said it was a "complicated story".

"What we found was that in most places in the Northern Rivers some indicators were going up and some are going down," she said.

"In the zero to five year old group it is a very encouraging story. There is a lot of effort going into working with new families.

"The biggest challenge is those families where they've been in the too hard basket for a long time.

"We need to work in supporting those families who perhaps do not have enough child care or income or who have unstable housing or mental health issues."

https://www.psychology.org.au/Content.aspx?ID=3960http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspxhttp://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/need-speak-slowly-took-music-lessons-kid-69524http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/music-lessons-enhance-brain-function-disa

dvantaged-kids-90047http://www.healthdirect.gov.au/rural-and-remote-healthhttp://www.aihw.gov.au/rural-health-remoteness-classifications/http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=6442468085http://www.aihw.gov.au/rural-health-information-framework/

our regional, rural and remote (RRR) industries are at the core of the financial security of the nation. Given the overall reliance of Australia on the producti

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vity of its regions, the health and wellbeing of those outside the metropolis is crucial to the overall prosperity of the nation. In stark contrast to the increasing wealth generated by these RRR-based industries, the health and wellbeing of our Indigenous population primarily located in rural areas has continued to deteriorate, during a time of rising prosperity for the country as a whole.

There are large inequities in health service provision across Australia and enormous difficulty in recruiting and retaining health practitioners to rural, and particularly remote, areas. This article presents an overview of current population distribution and incidence of general and mental health problems in rural communities, and demonstrates why RRR matters both to our country as a whole and to us as practising psychologists. There are unique and interesting opportunities for broad experience and service delivery innovation in the bush, often not feasible in metropolitan centres. Yet many of us remain limited and metro-centric in our view of what constitutes worthwhile work. This needs to change if psychologists as a profession are to contribute to the overall health and wellbeing of our nation.Music and connection- how it helps young brain developThere is much evidence that poverty, and the chronic stress it creates, hindersthe development of young brains. However, new research finds one important aspect of neural functioning is gradually strengthened when underprivileged childrenengage in a challenging but fun activity: Music lessons.

A newly published study of six- to nine-year-olds living in gang-infested areas

of Los Angeles finds those who spent two years participating in a free music-instruction program processed the sound of certain syllables more rapidly than their peers with less musical training.

"This research demonstrates that community music programs can literally remodelchildrens brains in a way that improves sound processing, which could lead to better learning and language skills."

This research demonstrates that community music programs can literally remodel childrens brains in a way that improves sound processing, which could lead to better learning and language skills, reports lead author Nina Kraus of Northwestern University. Her study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Kraus and her colleagues followed 44 children for three years. All were students in the Los Angeles public schools; all lived in designated gang-reduction zones.

At the beginning of the first year, 18 students enrolled in the music-training program conducted by the Harmony Project. After six months or so of introductorymusicianship classes (one-hour sessions twice weekly in which they learned fundamental skills), they moved on to group instrumental instruction.

Another 26 students had these lessons deferred for one year, starting their instruction at the beginning of year two.

At the end of each school year, all participants took part in neurophysiological

testing, in which researchers determined how quickly their brains processed the distinction between the sounds ba and ga.

Children with two years of training showed a marked improvement in the neural differentiation of the syllables, Kraus and her colleagues report. Across both groups, more music training was associated with larger enhancements in neural function.

This suggests that music training transferred to non-music listening settings toinfluence automatic auditory processing, they add. These improvements were in proc

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esses that are important for everyday communication.

Previous investigations have revealed that, as groups, children who are better readers, and children who hear better in noise, show stronger neural distinctionsof these same syllables. These findings therefore provide support for the efficacy of community and co-curricular music program to engender improvements in nervous system function.

Importantly, the researchers found this particular benefit of music education doesnt kick in until after two full years of training. A few lessons wont do it.

The good news, however, is that you dont have to enjoy the privileges of wealth,or even middle-class status, for music training to make a difference.

It all adds to the mass of evidencesee here, here, and herethat music training impacts young brains in ways that go far beyond aesthetic appreciation. As Kraus and her colleagues put it: Our findings support efforts to reintegrate music into public schooling as an important complement to science, technology, math, and reading instruction.

https://www.psychology.org.au/Content.aspx?ID=3960

There has been research

In a review on research done on the influence of "poverty" and "community type"such as rural communities on placing children at risk, questions such as "are students in poor, rural areas at greater risk of failure than those in urban areas" and "what characteristics of rural living place children at risk" were studied. There is little comprehensive research currently existing that examines solutions which may prove most beneficial.

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