Music Therapy Through Life: Palliative Care and End of Life

Palliative care is an area in which music therapists can offer a great deal, especially those who are also Registered Psychotherapists (RP’s). In many hospices and palliative departments, music therapists are on staff. Music therapists can help patients and their families with:

Physical needs

• Reduce pain
• Reduce nausea
• Help alleviate difficulty in sleeping
• Reduce agitation
• Promote relaxation
• Support breathing

Emotional and mental needs

• Provide an unthreatening way to work through emotions
• Help to work through fear and anxiety
• Increase feelings of well-being
• Open lines of communication with family members
• Music can provide comfort in the grieving process

Legacy

• Help the person (with or without others) through a process of life review, resulting in something tangible to leave for loved ones (such as a written song, or a CD of songs that reflect their life)
• When the palliative patient is not able to participate in the creation of a legacy item, a music therapist may be able to provide “heartbeat music therapy”. Using a special set up of stethoscope and microphone, the therapist records the patient’s heartbeat and then records music which incorporates the heartbeat for the family.

A beautiful end of life music therapy story:

• Music Therapy Through Life: Palliative Care and End of Life
• Music Therapy Through Life: Oncology
• Music Therapy Through Life: Older Adults and Dementia
• Music Therapy Through Life: Mental Health
• Music Therapy Through Life: Rehabilitation
• Music Therapy Through Life: Mid to Late Childhood and Adolescence
• Music Therapy Through Life: Early Childhood
• Music Therapy Through Life: Neonatal Intensive Care
• Music therapy through life