Baker, F. & Tamplin, J. (2006). Music Therapy Methods in Neuro-Rehabilitation: A Clinician's Manual. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 256 pages. ISBN 1 84310 4121. $55.00

Abstract

Baker, F. & Tamplin, ). (2006). Music Therapy Methods in Neuro-Rehabilitation: A Clinician's Manual. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 256 pages. ISBN 1 84310 4121. $55.00. The authors mention in their introduction that one of the motivating factors in writing this manual was to develop a useful resource that includes descriptions and detailed protocols of interventions (p. 16). What resulted is a wonderful compendium for newly qualified clinicians and students entering into neuro-rehabilitation. Plus, it is a useful resource for managers, supervisors, and educators supporting those already working in this field. Two experienced Australian clinicians from the field of neuro-rehabilitation have authored this concise manual, published in paperback. The information in the manual involves work with adults. However, there is also a chapter about pediatrie rehabilitation written by Jeanette Kennedy, another experienced Australian clinician and supervisor. Professor Barbara Wheeler provides a foreword for the manual, wherein she warmly welcomes the manual for use within the field, highlighting that it will complement already available texts. The focus of the information in the manual is the practical application of music therapy with a range of impairments and populations, but primarily those individuals with acquired brain injury. The manual also discusses the areas of physical rehabilitation, cognition and behavior, communication, emotional adjustment, and, as already mentioned, pediatrie rehabilitation. The approach most advocated by the authors, as highlighted in the introduction of the manual and then subsequently throughout, is an impairment-based one that is functional in orientation. This approach is supported by an overview of the brain and the information-processing mechanisms outlined in chapter 1. Accordingly, examples of tangible work (emergent from practice) that can be communicated concretely to members of the treating team are highlighted. The material shared in chapter 1 is presented logically, and the authors have collated varied and diverse information useful to music therapists, an approach that helps readers avoid the need to consult varied texts published across the field. The emphasis on the functional approach is timely, considering the pressure on clinicians and managers to demonstrate evidence-based practice in this field. Chapter 1 is followed by an informative and wide-reaching chapter regarding music therapy with patients in altered stages of consciousness (or commonly referred to as low-awareness states)-more specifically vegetative, minimally conscious, and the related post-amnesic state. The authors skillfully integrate allied literature, of which there is a broad range available to clinicians in journals, to introduce some of the controversies about the use of music and sensory stimulation with this patient group. The authors clearly define the differences between arousal and awareness as related to the field while also highlighting the controversies regarding the use of sensory stimulation versus regulation. As this population is a sub-population within the field of neuro-rehabilitation and one that requires advanced competency-based skills, this chapter is recommended to educators and those assisting newly qualified therapists based in hospitals who may work with just a few of these patients. The easy-to-understand protocols are useful examples of how clinicians can approach work with these patients. Also, a number of commonly used scales are referenced in the chapter, and these will assist in orientating new clinicians to this area. In chapter 2, additional information that could have been included is material relating to discharge criteria. Even though the title of the chapter may suggest that low-awareness states are stages of consciousness through which one proceeds, some patients never emerge from these states. Hence, clinicians who work with these patients toward functional gains may need to regularly consider discharging such patients. …