Category: Music

The Ontario government published in March 2020 their healthcare proposal, Roadmap to wellness: a plan to build Ontario’s mental health and addictions system (https://www.ontario.ca/page/roadmap-wellness-plan-build-ontarios-mental-health-and-addictions-system). The introduction states the following:

• Every year, more than one million Ontarians experience a mental health or addiction issue. This can have a serious impact on their quality of life and that of everyone around them. It can reduce their ability to go to school, make a living or raise a family. With 500,000 Canadians per week calling in sick because of mental health and addictions issues, there are clear consequences for the province’s economic productivity. By way of reference, the economic burden of mental health issues in Canada can be upwards of $50 billion per year.

Ontario will invest $3.8 billion over 10 years to enable this plan.

The Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) recognizes a group of Regulated Health Professions (each associated with their own regulatory college) that help manage and certify healthcare programs. These include the following: Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, Chiropody and Podiatry, Chiropractic, Dental Hygiene, Dental Technology, Dentistry, Denturism, Dietetics, Homeopathy, Kinesiology, Massage Therapy, Medical Laboratory Technology, Medical Radiation Technology, Medicine, Midwifery, Naturopathy, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Opticianry, Optometry, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Respiratory Therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture.

Members of the Canadian Association of Music Therapists (CAMT) can apply to become Registered Psychotherapists, and, upon acceptance, will be connected to OHIP through the College of Psychotherapy as medical practitioners. In the aforementioned government paper, psychotherapy is mentioned twenty times as a solution to Ontario’s mental health and addiction needs. Positioning musicking as a lifelong health commitment could provide a cost-efficient cradle-to-grave alternative to a needy healthcare industry. Musicking provides solutions for early childhood education, mental health and wellbeing, physical health and rehabilitation, exercise, community participation, and senior’s issues such as falling and a lack of social connection.

Music therapy is an important component in the pursuit of improved mental health and addiction conditions in Ontario (Rx Music 2020).

Tax Notes – Medical Expenses
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/technical-information/income-tax/income-tax-folios-index/series-1-individuals/folio-1-health-medical/income-tax-folio-s1-f1-c1-medical-expense-tax-credit.html

Tax Notes – Medical Practioners
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/lines-33099-33199-eligible-medical-expenses-you-claim-on-your-tax-return/authorized-medical-practitioners-purposes-medical-expense-tax-credit.html

Canadian MPs
https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/search?view=list

Ontario MPPs
https://www.ola.org/en/members/current?order=name&sort=asc

Support Letter
Re: Music in Healthcare
Dear Sir,
The inroads made into healthcare by the arts over the past ten years have been significant.
Some levels of government have entered a phase of Social Prescribing recommending that doctors promote arts solutions for ailments such as dementia, psychosis, lung conditions, and mental health issues. Recommendations include singing lessons, dance lessons, visiting museums, or simply listening to preferred music playlists.
The importance of community has exploded and issues regarding isolation and mental health have become headline news in every type of media. The position of Minister of Loneliness wasn’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye ten years ago, yet, today, many countries worldwide, including Canada, have begun addressing mental health issues with similar government positions.
The role of arts promotion by government has been significant, and although efforts are appreciated, the work is not done. Bringing the arts into healthcare addresses three critical politically-correct causes currently front-and-centre in the government agenda:
– more access to artists and the arts
– more community-building initiatives
– more healthcare offerings for mental health
These are world-class initiatives worthy of promotion by all levels of government. From a fiscally-responsible government perspective, perhaps the most appealing aspect of the Music in Healthcare movement is the cost-saving potential for addressing mental health issues. That is, promoting proven and efficient arts solutions, in lieu of expensive pick-a-pill pharmaceutical solutions, will improve the bottom line.
Reframing our personal health and wellbeing as a lifelong journey rather than a series of quick-fix destinations will help consolidate a view toward practical and real solutions.
Thank you for your support in bringing arts solutions to healthcare.
Yours very truly,
A riding constituent

Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) complements standard music therapy with a focus on neuropathway connections that respond specifically to music and rhythm. Michael Thaut in his book Handbook of Neurologic Music Therapy suggests that NMT is beneficial for individuals suffering from stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and other neurological diseases affecting cognition, movement, and communication (e.g., MS, Muscular Dystrophy, etc.) (Thaut 2016).

Dr. Thaut is a professor at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto and past Director of the Music and Health Research Collaboratory. He considers music to be a complex auditory language with a structure in time and patterns that can have a profound effect on sensory perception in the human brain.

He was featured on a 2016 CBC Radio interview where he stated, “The sensory input of music generates the signal that people cannot generate internally themselves. Auditory neurons start clicking because they hear a click sound, and the auditory neurons are connected to the motor neurons, and the motor neurons sit there quietly, and as soon as the auditory neurons start shooting, that electrochemical impulse triggers the motor neurons, you have that entrainment” (CBC Radio 2016).

Regarding brain connectivity and neuroplasticity, Thaut provides an example of a stroke patient losing functionality on the left side of the brain, the side typically associated with speech. Through extensive therapy training, the patient can transfer the function of speech to the right side of the brain (Thaut 2015). He goes on to say that by using music or click tracks in music therapy, Parkinson’s patients can experience improvement in gait and are able to regain rhythmicity, that is, the capacity to walk again smoothly and evenly. By introducing a steady rhythm in another part of the brain, the neurological connectivity provides a bridge to motor capability.

During the interview, Professor Thaut was asked, “Is there a class of neurological disorders that music is particularly good at addressing?” His response was enthusiastic. “Pretty much the whole range of cognitive, speech, and movement disorders that have a known neurological basis respond very, very well” (CBC Radio 2016).

During a lecture titled “How Music Helps to Heal the Injured Brain” at the University of Toronto on March 31, 2019, keynote speaker Dr. Thaut stated that “the clinical neuroscience of music perception is the foundation for music in brain rehabilitation.” He spoke of the comprehensive and all-encompassing nature in which our brains process music and stimulate the creation of memories. The simple act of listening to a popular song will initiate the entrainment of auditory neurons to motor neurons helping bridge auditory cues (typically found on the right side of the brain) to word and lyric sequencing (typically found on the left side of the brain) thereby stimulating memory and movement engagement, which in turn creates an emotional and physical response ultimately setting the stage for the development of even more memories. The reward of dopamine encourages similar future activity. Neurologic music therapy uses music-based interventions (MBI) to take advantage of the broad connectivity of music in the brain. Some of the techniques used include rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS), musical speech stimulation (MSS), and melodic intonation therapy (MIT).

The finale of the aforementioned lecture featured an onstage presentation of MSS in action. Dr. Corene Hurt introduced Jonas Vaskas, a successful Toronto-based opera baritone that had suffered a severe stroke five years earlier leaving him semi-paralyzed and without the ability to communicate. Dr. Hurt described his path over the past few years. It was discovered early on that although he had lost his professional singing voice, he was able to engage at a basic level using songs familiar to him.

Musical Speech Stimulation is the use of musical materials such as songs, rhymes, chants, and musical phrases simulating prosodic speech gestures to stimulate non-propositional speech. This technique uses the completion or initiation of over learned familiar song lyrics, association of words with familiar tunes, or musical phrases to elicit functional speech responses (Basso et al. 1979). For example, spontaneous completion of familiar sentences is stimulated through familiar tunes or obvious melodic phrases (e.g., “You are my …………”, or “How are you ………?”) (Thaut 2016).

Dr. Hurt engaged Jonas on stage in a one-on-one demonstration of singing together, imitation, and call-and response techniques. The stuttering, or delayed response, in Jonas’ speaking voice virtually disappeared with the introduction of musical rhythm (rhythmicity and entrainment). The lecture ended with Jonas singing his version of Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” followed by thunderous applause. It was an emotional presentation.

Neurologic music therapy promotes music-based interventions for health because of music’s general acceptance in society and its often simple implementation. “When music flourishes, people flourish too. People love music, and they love musicking together. It is not difficult to understand why. This is how music helps” (Ansdell 2015:305). It is a non-invasive, non-chemical, community-based, and artistically-driven medical remedy (Rx Music 2020).