Why does music therapy need to be licensed?
Music therapy is recognized as a profession through PA Senate Resolution 472 & PA House Resolution 1045. However, these resolutions do not provide consumer protection to the 41,000+ Pennsylvanians that receive music therapy services each year. The proposed music therapy legislation will protect Pennsylvania consumers of music therapy by ensuring that they are receiving safe and quality services by a clinically trained and educated healthcare provider and that only licensed and credentialed professionals can work as "music therapists" in PA. Additionally, due to differences in county-by-county service provision requirements, this bill will simplify and unify these requirements so that constituents and employers can identify and more easily access music therapy services provided by a qualified professional.
Are music therapists trying to license the use of music?
No. Music therapists deeply believe in the therapeutic value of music when used by professionals and encourage the use of music by other licensed professionals. In fact, there is exemption language in the current PA Music Therapy Licensure Bill so long as they do not refer to their work as "music therapy" or themselves as Licensed Professional Music Therapists. Music therapists do not own music and are NOT seeking to regulate the use of music. Music therapists are seeking to provide consumer protection and to simplify the process for PA consumers to access music therapy services.
What harm is there in using music?
At first glance, music may seem like a positive healing modality. Why would it need to be regulated? Again, a music therapy license would NOT license the use of music. It would only regulate the profession of music therapy. There is a wide difference in training requirements for music therapists (1200 clinical hours) and other training programs (some training programs provide weekend trainings or 1-2 semesters of training healthcare musicians) and often consumers do not know the difference without official state recognition of music therapy.
Without licensure, Pennsylvania consumers are at-risk. Music therapists are trained to comply with safety guidelines, follow specific protocols for different clinical populations, and respond to potentially adverse client reactions to music. Music therapists are trained to know how changes in tempo will affect heart rates, oxygen saturation levels, as well as contraindications for the use of music in different settings. Music therapists have training in universal precautions as well as how to use and disinfect instruments for use with patients that are in hospital rooms that require isolation precautions (i.e., TB, MRSA, C. Diff, organ transplant, oncology, etc.). Music therapists are also trained to work with highly medically frail patients, such as premature infants on the NICU, with protocols that limit the duration and dosage of music therapy in terms of maximum decibel levels and length of time that music therapy is provided for premature infants. (If these precautions are not followed, neurologic damage is possible.) Finally, music therapists are trained to observe indications of anxiety, as can occur in an older adult with Alzheimer's Disease, and to adapt or change the musical experience to lessen this agitation.
Without licensure, Pennsylvania consumers are at-risk. Music therapists are trained to comply with safety guidelines, follow specific protocols for different clinical populations, and respond to potentially adverse client reactions to music. Music therapists are trained to know how changes in tempo will affect heart rates, oxygen saturation levels, as well as contraindications for the use of music in different settings. Music therapists have training in universal precautions as well as how to use and disinfect instruments for use with patients that are in hospital rooms that require isolation precautions (i.e., TB, MRSA, C. Diff, organ transplant, oncology, etc.). Music therapists are also trained to work with highly medically frail patients, such as premature infants on the NICU, with protocols that limit the duration and dosage of music therapy in terms of maximum decibel levels and length of time that music therapy is provided for premature infants. (If these precautions are not followed, neurologic damage is possible.) Finally, music therapists are trained to observe indications of anxiety, as can occur in an older adult with Alzheimer's Disease, and to adapt or change the musical experience to lessen this agitation.
PA Music Therapy Licensure Co-Sponsors
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Representative Pashinski's HB 1356
Cosponsors Burgos Ciresi Conklin Davis Delloso Gaydos Hill-Evans Hohenstein Howard Isaacson Madden Matzie Mullins Pickett Probst Rozzi Venkat Williams, D |
Senator Vogel's SB 898
www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/billinfo.cfm?syear=2023&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=0898 Cosponsors Brewster Costa Culver Dillon DiSanto Fontana Gebhard Haywood Hutchinson Miller Schwank |