Searching for a topic/article to find on the voices website was kind of difficult for me. I did not know what I wanted to write a response on. While looking at the different countries of the month, I found Ireland. Some of my family is from Ireland, and I thought it would be nice to see if Music Therapy in Ireland is as developed as it is here in the U.S.A. The article starts off by talking about the overview of Ireland. For me, I was excited to learn about Ireland. I really do not know that much about the country so I was looking forward to reading more. On the Island of Ireland, there are two jurisdictions, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland is apart of the United Kingdom which i thought was pretty neat. It was something I did not know. The population of Ireland is 5.6 million. I thought this was really interesting because i did not really think they had that many people.
When it comes to Music Therapy in Ireland, this type of therapy is practiced on a somewhat regular basis. Music therapy is something I am still learning about and to hear that Music therapy is practiced on a regular basis blew my mind. I was really excited to hear that they practice this therapy. In Ireland, health and education are administered differently in the two jurisdictions of Ireland. These two regions do music therapy differently but with some common ground.
The difference between these two regions is the governance of the profession. The way that music therapy is governed in in Northern Ireland is different from the Republic. When i read this, i really did not understand why these two regions would be governed differently. Northern Ireland is governed through the Health Professional Council whereas the Republic of Ireland is governed by the Department of Health and Children which has proposed Music Therapy under Complementary and Alternative Medicine. After reading this, I kind of made sense of it. Each place is different and do different things different ways. However, I was still confused. When being qualified as a Music Therapist, this is another thing that is different in the two regions. Northern Ireland, you have to be registered to be a music therapist. However in the Republic of Ireland, anyone can call themselves a music therapist. To me this was a little strange. It is like someone just saying "I am a doctor. Who needs open heart surgery". For me, I would want a therapist who is qualified to do what is required of this profession.
Ireland actually has a university that allows individuals to study music therapy. I was really happy to see that they have a school that offers it. The courses that are available for this profession are just like here in the U.S. They have courses that students have to take and pass. Also clinical hours are required as well. According to the article, there are eight students that are a part of the program. The University of Limerick is a university that offers a masters program and a PhD level. To hear this, was amazing. I was so intrigued to hear about how music therapy in Ireland was doing so well and the fact that I didn't know music therapy existed was a shock as well.
Promoting music therapy in Ireland, the country does really well in this area. Ireland host many different conferences and workshops so that individuals can learn more about the profession. There have been many different speakers at these conferences and have been extraordinarily. Overall, learning about Ireland and how well off they are with Music Therapy really fascinated me. Music Therapy is a wonderful therapeutic tool that I feel works wonders and everyone should know about it.