Reichert Verlag

Music Therapy for Older Adults – Promoting Wellbeing, Health Outcomes, and Cost-effectiveness, edited by Elsa Campbell, Thomas Wosch, and Jeanette Tamplin, introduces innovative models of music therapy and music-based strategies designed to support people with dementia, as well as their formal and informal caregivers.
Resulting from the international MUSE-CARE project (Music Empowerment of Caregivers) and funded by the DAAD-PPP Australia programme (German Academic Exchange Service; Federal Ministry of Education and Research; Universities Australia), this unique volume showcases a rich partnership between German and Australian experts. Each chapter pairs authors from both countries writing on one main outcome, highlighting a global and interdisciplinary perspective on dementia care.
The dual focus of the book sets it apart: it not only introduces cutting-edge research and practical approaches, but also traces the academic journeys of the early-career researchers involved. From doctoral theses to post-doctoral work and tenure-track positions, the chapters reflect a dynamic and evolving field shaped by sustained international collaboration with professors and experts in the field.
Covering a range of disciplines including music therapy, geriatric nursing, geriatric psychiatry, health economics, nursing science, and (music) geragogy, this collection introduces innovative interventions. These are delivered by trained music therapists or as music therapy-informed strategies delivered by formal and informal caregivers. The chapters are tailored to diverse audiences and cover various fields, highlighting the span of the field: Music therapists and healthcare professionals will find evidence-based frameworks for interventions, including insights related to the various stages of dementia; policy-makers and healthcare administrators will benefit from models and analyses of cost-effectiveness and implications for healthcare systems; researchers and students of music therapy, nursing science, and related fields will appreciate the methodological reflections and real-world applications and impact of interdisciplinary research; formal and informal caregivers will discover adaptable, music-based strategies suitable for home and institutional settings. Finally, all chapters encapsulate the intercultural aspects and differences in interventions and models.
This book contributes meaningfully to a broader discourse on gerontology and dementia care. It emphasises the flexibility, empathy, and empowerment of people with dementia and their caregivers, offering a compelling vision of how music can connect and support across professions, generations, and cultures, thereby improving care and quality of life for older adults around the world.

Assistant Professor Elsa Campbell, PhD, is a music therapist, researcher, and educator born in 1990 in Donegal, Ireland. She holds a double honours Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance and German from Maynooth University (2012), followed by a Master’s (2014) and PhD (2019) in Music Therapy from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.
Since 2015, Elsa has coordinated the Vibrac Skille-Lehikoinen Centre for Vibroacoustic Therapy and Research in Finland, becoming a certified vibroacoustic therapist in 2017 and later joining the centre’s training team. Her doctoral research focused on the use of vibroacoustic therapy in rehabilitation for adults with chronic pain and comorbid mood disorders, laying the groundwork for her ongoing interest in evidence-based, body-oriented receptive approaches in music therapy.
From 2020 to 2023, she worked in geriatric care as a music therapist, conducting a study on active and receptive methods for older adults with dementia in residential care settings. In addition to her clinical work, she lectured at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, extending her engagement with academic teaching and supervision.
In 2023, Elsa began her tenure track position at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and took on the role of Head of WZMF – the Music Therapy Research Centre Vienna. Her current research, supported by the City of Vienna, explores the impact of biographically-informed music for older adults in care homes, with a particular interest in how music therapy and music outreach can intersect to support momentary wellbeing in people living with dementia.
Elsa teaches research methodology and receptive music therapy methods, and regularly publishes in international and interdisciplinary journals. Her work bridges practice, research and teaching with a consistent focus on person-centred care and the potential of music to improve the lives of people with dementia and their caregivers.

Professor Dr. Thomas Wosch is Professor of Music Therapy, head of Master Music Therapy for Empowerment and Inclusion, and Head of Music Therapy Lab in the Institute for Applied Social Sciences at the Technical University of Applied Sciences in Würzburg-Schweinfurt, born 1966 in Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany. He completed his PhD at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg in collaboration with the University of Music and Drama Hamburg in 2001. He has been principal investigator of the early career researchers’ group in the MWD-Song project 2017-2018, as well as the HOMESIDE project inclusive BayWISS-Kolleg Health and ProPere THWS 2019-2027, and the MUSE-Care project 2022-2023.

Thomas was music therapist and head of music therapists in 1990s in state psychiatric hospitals in the German federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg. Until today he provides music therapy interventions in social services for adolescents, geriatric psychiatry, out-patient services for adults with chronic mental disorders, social therapy in prison, and for services for people living with dementia and their family caregivers living at home. In 2007 Thomas published the textbook Microanalysis in Music Therapy with Tony Wigram (Jessica Kingsley Publishers), an approach he developed in music therapy research on which he has been publishing ever since. In 2016 he was co-founder of the International Music Therapy Assessment Consortium (IMTAC); he focuses on automatised music therapy assessment. He is principal investigator of the HIGH-M project 2021-2025, developing with Bastian Vobig in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä, the University of Oslo, and Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research computational assessment of musical interaction in clinical improvisations. Besides his research focus on microanalysis and assessment, his focuses are outcome research on music therapy in dementia care, including the EU-JPND research projects HOMESIDE and MIDDEL, music therapy for depression, music-based-interventions for caregivers in dementia care, and music social inclusion for people living with dementia. Thomas was co-founder of the BA-programme of Music Therapy at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, Germany, 1999-2007, Head of the MA-programme Developmental Music Therapy and Music Therapy for Patients with Dementia 2010-2020, and Head of the MA-programme Music Therapy for Empowerment and Inclusion since 2021 at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Germany. He has been teaching and examining regularly in music therapy MA- and PhD-programmes at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and Aalborg University, Denmark. Thomas is a member of the Creative Arts and Music Therapy Research Unit (CAMTRU) at the University of Melbourne, Australia, the Scientific Board of the German Music Therapy Association DMtG, and the German WFKT (Scientific Association of Arts Therapies of Germany).

Associate Professor Jeanette Tamplin is Head of Music Therapy and Associate Dean for Student Wellbeing in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at The University of Melbourne. She was born in 1975 in Tasmania, Australia. She completed her undergraduate music therapy training at The University of Melbourne in 1998, followed by a research Master’s in 2005 and a PhD in 2012. She was President of the Australian Music Therapy Association from 2020-2024. Jeanette has been employed at The University of Melbourne since 2013, initially in research-only positions (UniMelb postdoctoral fellowship: 2013-2015, NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Fellowship: 2016-2019), and in education and research roles since 2020. She also holds a post as Senior Music Therapist at the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre - Austin Health. Her clinical work and research has focused on neurorehabilitation following acquired brain injury, stroke, spinal cord injury, and for people living with dementia or Parkinson’s. Jeanette has coordinated and collaborated with many different research teams and has generated over AUD$5 million in grant funding. Her track record includes over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 invited book chapters, a co-edited a book on “Music and Dementia: From Cognition to Therapy” (Oxford University Press) and a co-authored book on “Music Therapy Methods in Neurorehabilitation: A Clinician’s Manual” (Jessica Kingsley Publishers). Her research focuses on the therapeutic effects of singing in speech and language rehabilitation, therapeutic songwriting to facilitation coping and adjustment, technology use in music therapy, and caregiver training in music-based strategies for care.