Gaute Kjølner Andersen: Prioritisation of music therapy in Norwegian mental health care

Field of study: Music Therapy/Music and Health

The project will be documented in article-based dissertation, with the overarching theme being the prioritisation of health services. The focus of the study is music therapy within Norwegian mental health care and interdisciplinary substance use treatment for adults. The aim is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how prioritisation in music therapy is perceived and how the service is distributed.

Research Question

The overarching research question is How is prioritisation in music therapy understood and enacted within Norwegian mental health care and specialized addiction treatment?

Mixed design

Different traditions offer varying approaches to the issue of health service prioritisation. The project employs a mixed-methods research design, integrating both quantitative results and qualitative findings.

Initially, Andersen conducts a Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) of existing literature relevant to the research question.

The quantitative part of the project is an exploratory study based on registry data from the Norwegian Patient Registry. The dataset consists of deidentified information on recipients of music therapy between 2021 and 2025. Key questions include identifying patient groups registered with a procedural code for music therapy, understanding where the therapy takes place, and analysing the intensity of treatment in terms of frequency and duration. Variations in service delivery are emphasised in the analysis.

Based on these quantitative results, Andersen conducts a qualitative interview study to examine perceptions and perspectives on prioritisation among music therapists and their managers.

The quantitative component of the project involves health data from the Norwegian Patient Registry, applied for via helsedata.no, run by the Norwegian Institute of Public health. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was approved by the responsible research institution on August 3, 2026, following input from the Data Protection Officer and SIKT – the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research (nr: 272848). Data will be securely stored within the Services for Sensitive Data (TSD) infrastructure, available via the University of Oslo.

Contribution

The study is ethically grounded in the Norwegian healthcare system’s legally established principle of equal and fair access to services. It seeks to expand the knowledge base on the prioritisation of music therapy services, with findings and results potentially supporting future research projects related to service areas where health registries are utilised. The study will also contribute with primary data that can facilitate prospective studies on music therapy involving registry data or electronic health records. This may include research in other areas where music therapy is offered and documented within the healthcare system, such as somatic care, addiction treatment, municipal health services, and public health research.