The Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on the Physical Health, Mental Health, and Social Functioning of Older Adults—2-Year Results

Choral singing therapy following stroke or Parkinson’s disease: an exploration of participants’ experiences

“…Small-scale choral studies with PD have shown improvements in QOL [40], speech intelligibility [41], breath control, and prosody [42]. Large-scale studies of choir participation with healthy older adults indicate improved QOL [43,44], social engagement [45,46], mood [47], immune functioning [48], and overall health [49].…”

Creative ageing? Selfhood, temporality and the older adult learner

“…A significant amount of attention from both academic and policy contexts has been paid to the potentials of 'creativity' for the 'wellbeing' of older adults. In the U.S. there have been both qualitative (Fisher and Specht, 1999;Bickerstaff et al, 2003) and quantitative (most notably Cohen, 2006;Cohen et al, 2007) approaches to the topic from a range of disciplines. Many have considered the use of the arts and creative activities within community education programmes (Narushima, 2008;Castora-Binkley and Noelker et al, 2010) as well as institutional and 'therapy' contexts (Flood and Philips, 2007).…”

Being Well, Being Musical: Music Composition as a Resource and Occupation for Older People

“…Regarding older people's engagement in participatory music making, research has often highlighted the emotional, cognitive, physical and social benefits of singing, playing instruments and music appreciation (Cohen et al 2006, Cohen et al 2007, Cohen 2009, Hallam et al 2011. However, while the knowledge base with regard to music making is established, and developing, the knowledge base relating to the impact of music composition as an occupation is more limited; it is this latter perspective that the Manchester Camerata project sought to address.…”