Secondary Research:
This study is designed to investigate the efficacy of using CM interventions to promote well-being in UK military veterans. To do this the UK veteran community and the issues that the community and individuals within the community face must be understood. Secondary research will be reviewed through publications by organisations such as the Ministry of Defence, Office for National Statistics, and Office for Veterans Affairs to build a picture of the make-up veteran community and support organisations such as the NHS, the Royal British Legion and veteran support charities to investigate the issues veterans face and the support available for them. Military and veteran identity is examined through Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory and how the transition to military identity and veteran identity occurs. It will also investigate the legacy of military identity and the challenges the veteran encounters in the transition back into civilian society.
Observing the sparsity of empirical studies involving CM interventions with UK veterans, secondary research will also review CM as an intervention, the work of CM and music therapy interventions in the veteran communities of other nations and interventions with non-veteran groups that encounter similar issues to assess how music could be used to alleviate some of the problems veterans face. Much of the secondary research refers to the treatment of those suffering from mental health issues, mainly PTS using music therapy modalities. The benefits of mental well-being illustrated in these studies are of utmost relevance to this study.
Primary Research: Primary Research is carried out with two newly emerging veterans’ music groups. The initial concept and vision for the groups, the set-up of the groups and the barriers, encountered through set-up and development will be examined. The value of participation will be investigated through the perspective of the organiser/facilitator and that of the participant to develop an understanding of how participation in the group affects well-being and the effect that has on the individual's mental health in general.
The field site is at the NWVCoD rehearsal venue at St Helen's. The participants (n= 7). The Guitars for veterans group situated in South Wales were studied remotely and contacted by telephone, online technology, and social media. All participants were over the age of 18 and were provided with a project information sheet explaining the research, data collection and storage, they were aware that they would be given pseudonyms. Ethical approval was granted by the York St John University ethics committee.
Data Collection: The data collected included: Organiser/ facilitator questionnaires Organiser/ facilitator Audio/video recorded semi-structured interviews Participant initial questionnaires Participant reflective journals Participant Audio/video recorded semi-structured interviews Audio/video recordings of rehearsals & performances Field notes of observations of rehearsals and informal conversations. Questionnaire answers, field notes and semi-structured interview transcripts were analysed and coded using descriptive and value coding (Saldaña, 2020). Themes were identified and thematic groupings were created where corresponding texts were inserted in a spreadsheet side by side with other text in the thematic groupings.