Club Meeting October 23 2024 Denise Grocke

Larry Green was our chairperson for today's meeting at Cilantro.  Margaret Lucas performed Invocation and the toast to Rotary and Australia.  Tony Ryan and Charles Rener joined the meeting via Zoom.  Visitors included Margaret Toyas, and our guest speaker - Professor and Past President of Beaumaris Rotary Club Denise Grocke.    Quite a number of apologies were announced.   

Tomorrow Thursday 24/10/24 is World Polio Day.

Finally, Tim welcomed back some 'globe trotting' members. and it was lovely to welcome them back. 

GUEST SPEAKER - Denise Grocke - AO, Professor ,and a Past President of Beaumaris Rotary Club

Denise Grocke is an internationally renowned founder of music therapy in Australia, who established the Australian Music Therapy Association in 1975.  Denise completed her music therapy qualifications at Michigan State University, USA, and holds a Masters degree in Music Therapy, and a PhD in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), both from the University of Melbourne. She established the music therapy course at the University of Melbourne in 1978, and for 33 years was Head of Music Therapy where she directed the undergraduate and graduate programs in music therapy.  Denise has contributed to many publications on the subject and has received many recognitions and awards worldwide.  Denise was presented with an Order of Australia in 2016 for distinguished service to public health as a pioneer practitioner of music therapy programs, to education as an academic, researcher, and author, and to professional associations.  

Music is a universal language that does not require verbal communication but is a method for communicating and drawing people together.   Music therapy is shown to be beneficial in a wide variety of applications - in particular within the mental health sector to reduce stress and anxiety, and more notably, calm patients in the autism spectrum.  The therapy qualifies and is registered with NDIS.  Studies show music calms babies born prematurely and showing frustration.  Other applications are using music therapy to engage people with dementia, and patients in palliative care, and more generally, to create a positive environment for adults and children in hospital    More recently, music therapy is being used to treat students who are experiencing anxiety since the Covid lockdown - this includes students who were in years 7 and 8 during lockdown, and university students.  Music therapy involves specialised music and song writing that presents in a structured way.   Whilst music therapy is used in specific settings, the music is also widely available and can be downloaded via Spotify and the internet.  The application and benefits of music therapy continue to be explored.   Thank you Denise for your very informative talk on a subject this is important but not widely known as a specialist area or profession.