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:
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