Image: A section of the keys of a piano.
(a) Population/age group: Older adults living in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities
Target audience: Older adults experiencing isolation during COVID-19
(b) Rationale: I enjoy working with older adults and could see myself doing so in the future. I want to learn more about this population in order to improve my clinical skills by applying universal design principles. During the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults living in residential facilities are particularly likely to experience isolation; this is a critical time to serve this population. My service-learning project would involve creating accessible, interactive music therapy-based resources for older adults with a variety of goals and needs. I could upload these as unlisted YouTube links or as downloadable files and share them with the community partner for residents to access. I would like to make these resources as accessible as possible in order to maximize the number of residents who can use the links independently and to increase the ease of access for those who assist residents. This is relevant to the course because I would be applying principles of universal design through the format I use to share the links, as well as transcribing and adding closed captioning to the videos. Expertise I bring to the project relates to my technological skills that have improved during the pandemic and an understanding of common goals to target.
(c) My prior experience with this population mainly took place during my internship with Tampa Bay Institute for Music Therapy. On Wednesday afternoons from January to March, I provided services to older adult individuals and groups at Concordia Village of Tampa.
(d) Possible community partners include residential facilities for older adults in western Kentucky: Bowling Green, Madisonville, or Hanson.
Experts to possibly interview include:
Dr. Reschke-Hernández
Eric Ervast, my internship supervisor at Concordia Village
Sharon Graham, my internship director who previously worked in hospice music therapy