Monitoring music therapy in Austria
A national survey study on the professional situation of music therapists
Background
In 2018, the Music Therapy Research Centre Vienna (WZMF) conducted a national survey of the professional situation of music therapists in Austria. Following a previous survey from 2011, this study aimed to provide current data and to illustrate changes in the professional field. Since 2009, music therapy in Austria has been regulated by the Music Therapy Act. All working music therapists must be registered and therefore constitute a homogeneous group, which enables systematic research in the field.
An invitation to take part in an online survey was sent to all 405 music therapists who were registered in October 2018. The survey covered the music therapists’ current working situation including workplace, hours of work per week, fields of work as well as legal and financial issues.
With a response rate of 73.8 % (299 people), the results offer representative data from 380 workplaces. In general, the findings show an increase in music therapy services, which are offered most frequently for children and adolescents with developmental or behavioural problems (22.5 %) and for adults with mental health problems (21.5 %). The high response rate means that the results provide representative data for the situa-tion of music therapists in Austria. Beyond that, this data may also be used as a reference to support professional development internationally.
From 2022 ongoing, the WZMF will conduct a survey about the professional situation of music therapists on a regular basis: "Monitoring Music Therapy in Austria 2022 (MMÖ 2022)".
Current status of MMÖ 2022
Primary data and first results (used withCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons Lizenz):
MMÖ 2022: Arbeitspapier-01 Primärdaten und erste Ergebnisse [in German]
Articles about the national survey in 2018
Article in published in German language: doi: 10.13109/muum.2019.40.3.236
Article published in English (open access): doi: 10.13109/muum.2019.40.3.236.en
Contact
Hannah Riedl: riedl@mdw.ac.at
Eva Phan Quoc: phan-quoc@mdw.ac.at