Employment and Public Relations Committe of AMTA

Amy Hemenway, MT-BC
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The Employment and Public Relations Committee is focused on promoting awareness of music therapy as a "viable healthcare profession and as an efficacious clinical intervention." (AMTA website) Developing communication programs that articulate the benefits of music therapy to medical, educational and community-based settings, is one of this committee's primary goals. This includes the dissemination of accurate and up-to-date information on music therapy to members and consumers of AMTA. Providing educational and technical assistance to those wishing to enhance or develop effective therapeutic and ethical business models is also a priority of this committee.

An NER display board has been created for utilization by NER/AMTA members who seek to represent/promote the music therapy profession at conferences, workshops, presentations, college fairs, etc. It includes several pictures and articles about local music therapists and how their services are impacting several educational, medical and community-based settings. If you have something you would like to contribute to this board or would like to use it for an event, please contact me.

Jun 10 2008
Employment/PR Update PDF Imprimir E-mail
Por Amy Hemenway   
10 de June de 2008
The Employment and Public Relations Committee convened twice during the most recent music therapy conference in Louisville, KY.  This committee has been given several charges:  To maintain accuracy of materials generated, to support regional networks, to identify and monitor trends of employment, and to identify career information for prospective music therapy students. 

It was brought to our attention that several online career databases have little to no information on music therapy.  We, as a committee, crafted a letter to be sent to webmasters who maintain some of these career databases, encouraging them to include music therapy as a career on their websites.  We included the AMTA definition of music therapy and also asked them to link the AMTA website to their databases. 

This committee also discussed ideas on how to launch a “National Music Therapy Awareness Day, Week, or Month.” We will contact other allied healthcare related associations (i.e. – Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, etc.) to find out how they became involved in this process.  This will require support from AMTA and possibly the U.S. congress in order to move forward with establishing national recognition for the music therapy profession.

Developing ways to track trends and growth within the music therapy field was also a topic of discussion.  Our committee designed a survey to distribute to AMTA members on growth and trends across the country.  This survey awaits approval from AMTA before it can be disturbed among the membership. 

There are no current updates on any business regarding the Employment and Public Relations Committee, as per my discussion with our national representative, during this 3rd week of January.  If anyone has any questions, concerns or ideas to contribute, please contact me via e-mail: Este endereço de e-mail está sendo protegido de spam, você precisa de Javascript habilitado para vê-lo
 
about_amy.gifAmy earned her Bachelor of Music Degree from Marywood University in the fall of 1997.  She began her private practice in September of 1998, after completing her internship at Taconic Developmental Center in Wassaic, NY.  Amy contracts with several public and private schools, as well as some group homes and an adult day care center within the Greater Hartford area. Providing group and individual services for people with a variety of special needs, has been the focus of her practice.  Amy works primarily with children diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum, but also has experience working with people with Downs syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Williams Syndrome and Tuberous Sclerosis.  
 
Amy is very passionate about singing.  She cantors weekend masses at St. Patrick Church in East Hampton, CT, and is also a member of the Greater Middletown Chorale.  She resides in Central CT with her husband Kirk and two cats, Dante and Isabelle.