Kiera Kenny

Indicative thesis title: Raising quality of care and quality of life in dementia care homes through music therapy: A cluster randomised control trial.

Background

Supervisory team: Prof Helen Odell-Miller (1st), Dr Ming Hung Hsu (2nd)

Kiera’s research involves implementing a music therapy intervention in dementia care homes to examine its effects on quality of care and quality of life. She will also assess the feasibility of the intervention. She will be examining the clinical, cognitive and neurological outcomes in dementia care settings.

Kiera will be using quantitative, qualitative and psychophysical analyses to determine the effectiveness of music therapy on dementia care residents and care home staff. The research aims to have a positive impact on both staff and dementia care residents and inform social care policy to improve residential dementia settings.

Kiera is passionate about research and aims to use her skills and knowledge to advance clinical practice. She has always been interested in cognitive neuroscience and she is looking forward to applying her interests to the field of music therapy and dementia care.

Kiera obtained a first-class BSc with honours in 2017 here at ARU. She went on to gain a MSc in Organisational Psychology at the University of Kent in 2018. She has gained strong research experience and is excited to be a part of the ARU team again.

Research interests

• Clinical psychology
• Cognitive neuroscience
• Organisational psychology

Qualifications

• MSc Organisational Psychology
• BSc (Hons) Abnormal & Clinical Psychology