Academics from the MA in Music Therapy, Irish World Academy, University of Limerick recently presented a briefing at Leinster house to highlight the need for regulation of the Creative Arts Therapies professions in Ireland. The presentation, delivered by Professor Jane Edwards and Tríona McCaffre, was delivered to a committee chaired by by Senator Catherine Noone, Seanad spokesperson on Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht Affairs. More than forty TDs heard how the high level of training of qualified creative arts therapists, and their responsibilities, ethical code, and international evidence base allows their expertise to be shared successfully across many contexts and client groups. 

The need for action to establish a protected title of Creative Arts Therapist in the HSE and the inclusion of professions recognised in the Health & Social Care Professionals Act (2005) was underlined by the presentations of panel members Professor Jane Edwards (Course Director, MA in Music Therapy, University of Limerick), Rebecca O’Connor (Chair of the Irish Association for Creative Arts Therapies), Tríona McCaffrey (Lecturer in Music Therapy, University of Limerick) and John O’Malley (Director of the Dublin Creative Therapy Centre).