Cookstown centre hopes to expand music therapy for autism

MUCH like the human brain, there is still much more to discover about the power of music. Even back in the early 1600s music’s importance was recognised in the famous verse of Shakespeare who declared, ‘If music be food of love, play on’.

Fast forward to 2022 and one of the most intriguing and exciting developments has been the proven positive impact which music can have on patients with dementia, bringing peace and happiness to often troubled and confused minds.

But what is less well-known is that music therapy is delivering major benefits for young people with autism. And next month will see the start of a new 12-week course which will work with 12 families in the Mid Ulster area.

The course will be held at the Apex Music Centre which was set up in Cookstown a year ago by Oran McGuckin and Graham McKinstry.

Just last month the arts and music community centre was awarded a £5,940 grant from the National Lottery for the innovative new programme to develop communication skills and improve wellbeing in children with autism.

Graham said the course was a natural progression for the centre which was set up to reach out to young people in the area.

“We are essentially an arts and music based community centre and we opened the doors for people who couldn’t really get music lessons, as well as arts based workshops. It boils down to a community centre for people who want to get involved in the arts,” said the Dungannon musician.

“Before Covid, we had an idea to start a rock school and we had our own studio, but then Covid came along and it didn’t happen.

“We always wanted to do something more community focused than just a recording studio. When we were younger, we had to go to either Derry or Belfast for opportunities in music.”
Oran said they had already delivered music therapy for a child with autism in the town.

“We initially did it before and it was funded by the Buttle Fund and through Network Personnel.

“They work with disadvantaged families and they contacted us about a woman and her son who had autism and they wanted us to look into music therapy mainly for speech development and communication development, and we arranged with a girl called Aine, who is a piano teacher here at the centre and she is also a licensed music therapist here as well.

“From there we looked at getting funding for a larger project to help more families.”

Despite the clear benefits, music therapy for autism is not widely available across the North.

However the demand for music therapy from families with autism in the Mid Ulster area is clear, with over 30 applications for the 12 spaces available on the course.
Both Oran and Graham are hoping more focus will be placed upon music therapy.

“Music therapy is still a very niche sort of thing at the minute,” Oran continued. “There might be one or maybe two music therapists working in a hospital, but it’s not something that is being done widely.”
Graham said he hoped that the music therapy will be become a key component of their offering at Apex.

He said, “Absolutely, I would love this (course) to lay the ground work for large scale projects and longer term projects.

“This project is just for 12 weeks for each family, which is nice that we can run it for that long, but in future it would be nice to run larger, longer projects, to really see what kind of impact we can make.”
Graham and Oran held a craft day and open day at the weekend (see photos on page 20) – to celebrate the first anniversary of Apex Music Centre.

Oran who is from Cookstown and Graham from Dungannon first met at music college around ten years ago and eventually met up again to open a recording studio.

“Graham works as a professional live musician, and I would work more on the technical side of it, recording bands and live sound and going out and doing gigs. I would play a bit myself in a band,” said Oran.

“We went our separate ways but then came together again and here we are now at the Apex Centre. We have been working hard with the community here in Cookstown. Carol Doey from the Hub and her husband Tony have been very helpful to us in setting up Apex here in the town.

“It was actually Carol and Tony who found these premises. Carol was really key in helping us engage with the community.”

Most days of the week, music can be heard emanating from the centre which is situated on Park Avenue, just off the Burn Road in the town.

“Yes we regularly have classes. From Monday to Wednesday, we teach guitar, bass guitar, drums, singing, violin, piano. We have tutors that teach all these instruments.

“And the rest of the days in the centre are normally blocked out for other classes, projects and workshops,” said Oran.

And this week saw the start of a six-week summer school.

Graham added, “The summer school is mainly focused on arts, music and drama, because a lot of the other summer schemes here in the town would be focused on sport, and when we ran it last year, we found that a lot of families were saying that their kids didn’t want to do sports, but they like music and a bit of art.

“So the summer school caters more for those kids that really aren’t into sports. In Northern Ireland there’s still an expectation that most kids would be into sports, but not every kid wants sport, so it’s really good to offer something different to them.

“We put the offer out for applications for the summer scheme out about 6pm and by about 9pm or 10pm that night it was all booked out.”

And Oran believes there is still plenty more to do to meet the demand.

He said, “We are really only scratching the surface of what we can do at the minute.

“We are working with other organisations like the Hub, to try and do as much as we can to help young people, so that they don’t feel they have to leave and go to Belfast or Derry.”