A Comprehensive Survey of Music Therapists Practicing in Correctional Psychiatry: Demographics, Conditions of Employment, Service Provision, Assessment, Therapeutic Objectives, and Related Values of the Therapist

Abstract

Credentialed music therapists who lived in the United States and practiced in correctional institutions housing inmates with severe mental illness, or in forensic settings nationwide, completed a 90-item survey concerning music therapy principles and practice in these settings. Respondents were members of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), were listed in the AMTA database as working in correctional/forensic psychiatry, and were practicing as music therapists in one of these settings during the Fall of 2000. Survey interests included group demographics, selected values of the music therapists as related to clinical practice, professional education and training, employment history, conditions of employment, and a description of assessment practices used in the clinical protocol. Treatment objectives specific to correctional psychiatry were identified and therapeutic uses/functions of music were described as applied to the population. A brief history of music therapy in correctional psychiatry preceded the presentation of survey methods and results.