DICS Music Therapy: Databases and Data Communication

Abstract

In introducing this paper on the Documentary Information and Communication System which has been developed over the last two and a half years in the Netherlands, I find it difficult to hide the excitement and enthusiasm I feel for this project and for the men who have pioneered such an important development for music therapy. I have been to four different presentations by Pieter van den Berk and Frans Vodegel and recently spent time in the Netherlands with them discussing how the system can be established in the UK, and how it is being established in other countries. The tremendous value of this resource to music therapy is almost incalculable. Communication is one of the most fundamental elements in music therapy practice, and the essence of this paper is in describing a process by which music therapists can communicate with each other all over the world.

Imagine a situation where after initiating some work with somebody suffering from a particular problem, you experience considerable difficulties in how to proceed. Through the DICS, it would be quite simple to delve into the memory of the computer, and quickly find out all the other practitioners in countries which have established the system who are involved or have been involved in the same area of work, and make contact with them. Additionally, the system will allow us to call up available literature on particular problems that we are working with in music therapy journals and medical journals that have been stored in the system.

Personally, I will find it enormously valuable to establish and build up contact with music therapists all over Europe and in the United States and in Australia who are working in the same area that I am. But the DICS is not only a process of taking, it is also a process of giving. By giving information to the system about music therapy in Great Britain, training, clinical practice and available literature, we will find that not only can we gain from understanding the work of others, but can take pride in the dissemination of our own work abroad.