Factors Influencing Music Therapists' Retention of Clinical Hours with Autistic Clients over Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

The 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic influenced music therapists to migrate services to online platforms, though some lost clinical hours during the pandemic when telehealth was not a viable option. This survey study aimed to ascertain factors that helped music-based therapists to continue serving autistic clients over telehealth during the pandemic. We surveyed 193 accredited music therapists located mainly in Canada and the US. In addition to gathering data on general perceptions of telehealth music therapy and Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT), one-way ANOVAs were applied to determine differences in percent-change loss of clinical hours for music therapists: (1) working in different employment settings; (2) serving children, youth, adults, or a mixture of ages; and (3) practicing NMT or not. The general perception of telehealth music therapy was positive, and NMTs believed that the clear protocols and transformation design model were helpful to them in adapting services to telehealth. There were no significant differences in percent-change of clinical hours among music therapists in different employment settings or serving different client age groups. Music therapists who said they practiced within the NMT treatment model lost a significantly lower percentage of clinical hours with autistic clients than those who did not practice NMT. Possible reasons for this result and the need for further research are discussed.