Music has long been shown to have diverse benefits for all age groups. Music therapy has been used in a variety of situations involving both physical and mental health issues. A report of a United Kingdom study on the benefits of older people's participation in community music activities prompted an investigation of the benefits of a new…

Background: Diabetes self-management education (DSME) is generally considered to be a key determinant of the treatment outcomes and related costs of diabetes mellitus. While DSME programmes generally have positive outcomes, their effects may depend on certain factors, such as the type of programmes provided and patients' level of health literacy…

Background: People with intellectual disabilities have a shorter life expectancy, but healthcare improvements mean that they are beginning to live longer, with associated health difficulties. This means that there is an urgent need to focus research on ageing as well as end-of-life care. This study aimed to explore a specialist intellectual…

Music is increasingly recognised as important in facilitating healthy ageing, yet little is known of what musicians themselves learn when they teach older adults. This article reports the practices of the "Rhythm for Life" project at the Royal College of Music in the UK, in which conservatoire students taught 10-week programmes of group…

This is an interpretive-descriptive analysis of responses to 41 open ended questionnaires returned by academics working beyond normal retirement age. The sample consisted mainly of academics from the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. The research addressed the question of what motivates some academics to continue working beyond the…

This article examines the contribution of older adults as co-researchers to the evaluation of a gerontological social work course. The evaluation was conducted at an Israeli college as part of a collaborative project with a United Kingdom university. Here, we follow the older adults who are service users through their transition to the role of…

A compelling body of research demonstrates that music continues to offer powerful potential for enhancing health and well-being in old age. Active music-making has been found to provide a source of enhanced social cohesion, enjoyment, personal development, and empowerment, and to contribute to recovery from depression and maintenance of personal…

There is now an accepted need for initiatives that support older people's health and well-being. There is increasing evidence that active engagement with music has the potential to contribute to this. This research aimed to explore the characteristics of older people who participated in active music making with a view to identifying the groups…

Educating and training the dementia workforce is a global challenge, given the expected increasing number of people living with dementia across the world as the population ages. Two projects from the UK (one regionally and one locality based) investigated courses available to the workforce and mapped the content of identified courses against a…

Background: For adult physical and mental health, the population mean predicts the proportion of individuals with "high" scores. This has not previously been investigated for child mental health. It is also unclear how far symptom scores on brief questionnaires provide an unbiased method of comparing children with different individual,…

Background: The impact of a total laryngectomy on an individual's life has primarily been measured from a male viewpoint reflecting the demographics of a diagnosis of laryngeal cancer. A small number of studies have looked specifically at females, but very few are comparison studies. Consequently, there is little consistent research regarding any…

Background: As part of a UK programme of work focusing on older people with intellectual disabilities, the circumstance of those who reside in generic services for older people were investigated. Materials and methods: Questionnaires were sent to 2570 residential and nursing homes in 53 local authorities across the UK. Results: Five hundred and…