Helen English is currently an Australia Research Council Early Career Research Fellow.

As an ARC fellow, she explores how older adults experience transformation through engagement with music and what within music-making enables such experiences. The research is conducted through case studies in Australia with a comparative study in London, UK in 2024.

She also leads a creative-ageing research team at the University of Newcastle, supported by the Hunter Medical Research Institute as part of the Healthy Minds Research Program. Her team is investigating the effects of engagement with creative courses designed for older adults, funded by Dementia Australia.

Helen’s overarching passion is to widen participation in creative activities for older adults. To further this, she created a digital map of music groups in Australia as a resource for older adults in anticipation of the introduction of social prescription in Australia.

In 2024-2025, she is collaborating with Maitland Regional Art Gallery on research into the benefits of their art and dementia program, Conversations, funded by a Primary Health Network grant.