scholarly journals Music therapy in palliative care

Author(s):  
Clare O’Callaghan

Music therapists are university-trained professionals who invite palliative care patients, and their significant family members and friends, to explore how creative music-based experiences in therapeutic relationships can address biopsychosocial needs and enhance spiritual well-being. The chapter illustrates how music therapists can extend music’s power to help patients across the lifespan live a quality life and support their families. Patients often choose familiar music to listen to, sing, or play that elicits people, places, emotions, and thoughts that they want to connect with. Through music therapy song writing and improvisation, patients and families creatively explore their ‘playful’ musical and unique selves, and potentially experience helpful new awareness, wonder, pride, and accomplishment. Patients’ song composition legacies can also support the bereaved. Music therapists offer guided music and relaxation or imagery interventions, to soothe and help with symptom management. Extensive quantitative and qualitative research informing music therapy is also outlined and music-based care suggestions are provided for when music therapists are not available.

Author(s):  
Clare O'Callaghan ◽  
Lucanne Magill

This chapter describes music therapy in cancer care in Western and Asian countries. Detailed descriptions of cancer prevalence, mortality rates, histological classifications, treatments, and biopsychosocial effects are provided. When affected by cancer, music therapy can offer support, enable symptom alleviation, promote endurance and spiritual well-being, and assist in functional restoration and quality of life improvement. An evolving music therapy assessment procedure in oncology is outlined as well as common music therapy methods used in inpatient and outpatient settings, and to promote community ward-based care. Music therapists can: Replay music from the patients’ and families’ lives; help them to explore new musical experiences, such as improvisation, song writing, chanting and toning; and offer music relaxation and supportive or guided imagery experiences. Research has demonstrated music therapy’s positive effects on patients, their families, and staff care givers, reinforcing its important and meaningful role in multidisciplinary oncology care.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
SarahRose Black ◽  
Gary Rodin ◽  
Camilla Zimmermann

Music therapy in palliative care aims to provide psychosocial support, assistance with pain and symptom management and opportunities for life review and legacy work. Although there have been a variety of studies conducted on the effects of music therapy in palliative care facilities, there is a gap in research examining the experience and feasibility of music therapy on acute palliative care units within cancer care settings. This qualitative study explored the lived experience of inter-active listening (IAL), an individualized music therapy in which the therapist plays music or sings while the patient engages through listening, for nine inpatients on a palliative care unit. The study found that a receptive music therapy referred to as IAL was associated, in cancer patients in an acute palliative care unit, with increased emotional and spiritual well-being and a greater sense of connection to self and others. Further research into specific effects of various music therapy intervention styles is warranted. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 026921632110103
Author(s):  
Marco Warth ◽  
Friederike Koehler ◽  
Martin Brehmen ◽  
Martin Weber ◽  
Hubert J Bardenheuer ◽  
...  

Background: Awareness for the importance of psychological and spiritual needs in patients with terminal diseases has increased in recent years, but randomized trials on the effects of psychosocial interventions are still rare. Aim: To investigate the efficacy of the “Song of Life” music therapy intervention regarding the emotional and psycho-spiritual dimensions of quality of life. Design: Patients were randomly assigned to either “Song of Life” or a relaxation intervention. “Song of Life” is a novel three-session music therapy intervention working with a biographically meaningful song. Primary outcome was the improvement in psychological quality of life. Secondary outcomes included spiritual well-being, ego-integrity, momentary distress, and global quality of life and the explorative assessment of treatment satisfaction (patient and family member version). Intention-to-treat analysis was conducted including adjustment for multiple testing in secondary outcomes. Setting/participants: Between December 2018 and August 2020, 104 patients receiving specialized palliative care were recruited from two palliative care wards. Results: No significant differences were found regarding psychological and global quality of life, but “Song of Life” participants reported significantly higher spiritual well-being ( p = 0.04) and ego-integrity ( p < 0.01), as well as lower distress ( p = 0.05) than patients in the control group. Both patients’ and family members’ treatment satisfaction was higher after “Song of Life” with large between-group effect sizes on items asking for meaningfulness ( d = 0.96) and importance ( d = 1.00). Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that “Song of Life” is an effective and meaningful biographical music therapy intervention to facilitate psycho-spiritual integration in terminally ill patients. Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS)—DRKS00015308 (date of registration: September 7th 2018).


2021 ◽  
pp. 026921632199472
Author(s):  
Natalia Salamanca-Balen ◽  
Thomas V Merluzzi ◽  
Man Chen

Background: The concept of hope is an important theme in chronic illness and palliative care and has been associated with increased psycho-spiritual well-being and quality of life. Psycho-spiritual interventions have been described in this population, but no systematic review of hope-enhancing interventions or hopelessness-reducing interventions has been conducted for persons with palliative care diseases. Aim: To describe and assess the effectiveness of interventions in palliative care that measure hope and/or hopelessness as an outcome. Design: This systematic review and meta-analysis was pre-registered (Prospero ID: CRD42019119956). Data sources: Electronic databases, journals, and references were searched. We used the Cochrane criteria to assess the risk of bias within studies. Results: Thirty-five studies (24 randomized controlled trials, 5 quasi-experimental, 6 pre-post studies) involving a total of 3296 palliative care patients were included. Compared with usual/standard cancer care alone, interventions significantly increased hope levels at a medium effect size ( g = 0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.28–0.93) but did not significantly reduce hopelessness ( g = −0.08, 95% CI = −0.18 to 0.02). It was found that interventions significantly increase spirituality ( g = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.02–1.37) and decrease depression ( g = −0.29, 95% CI = −0.51 to −0.07), but had no significant effect over anxiety, quality of life, and symptom burden. Overall, quality of evidence across the included studies was rated as low. Conclusions: Evidence suggests that interventions can be effective in increasing hope in palliative care patients.


Author(s):  
Susan C Gardstrom ◽  
James Hiller ◽  
Annie Heiderscheit ◽  
Nancy L Jackson

Abstract As music therapists, music is our primary realm of understanding and action and our distinctive way of joining with a client to help them attain optimal health and well-being. As such, we have adopted and advocate for a music-focused, methods-based (M-B) approach to music therapy pre-internship education and training. In an M-B approach, students’ learning is centered on the 4 music therapy methods of composing, improvising, re-creating, and listening to music and how these music experiences can be designed and implemented to address the health needs of the diverse clientele whom they will eventually encounter as practicing clinicians. Learning is highly experiential, with students authentically participating in each of the methods and reflecting on these self-experiences as a basis for their own clinical decision-making. This is differentiated from a population based (P-B) approach, wherein students’ attention is directed at acquiring knowledge about the non-musical problems of specific “clinical populations” and the “best practice” music interventions that are presumed to address these problems. Herein, we discuss both approaches, identifying the limitations of a P-B perspective and outlining the benefits of an M-B curriculum and its relevance to 21st-century music therapy practice.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Hau Yan Ho ◽  
Oindrila Dutta ◽  
Geraldine Tan-Ho ◽  
Toh Hsiang Benny Tan ◽  
Casuarine Low Xinyi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Conventionally, psycho-socio-spiritual interventions for parents of children with chronic life-threatening illness begin post child loss. Pre-loss interventions addressing anticipatory grief can improve holistic well-being and grief outcomes among family caregivers of dying patients. Globally, palliative care strives to holistically support patients and their caregivers at the end-of-life. However, inadequacies exist both globally and in Singapore in providing culturally sensitive psycho-socio-spiritual support to parents whose children need pediatric palliative services. Aim: A novel evidence-based Narrative e-Writing Intervention (NeW-I) is developed to address this gap. NeW-I is a strength-focused, meaning-oriented and therapist-facilitated mobile app and web-based counseling platform that aims to enhance quality of life, spiritual well-being, hope and perceived social support, and reduce depressive symptoms, caregiver burden and risk of complicated grief among parents facing their child’s chronic life-threatening illness. Methods: The design of NeW-I is informed by an international systematic review and a Singapore-based qualitative inquiry on the lived experience of bereaved parents of children with chronic life-threatening illness. The online NeW-I platform and the relative anonymity it offers to participants is sensitive to the unique cultural needs of Asian family caregivers who are uncomfortable with emotional expression even during times of loss and separation. Together with four local pediatric palliative care providers, NeW-I is implemented in Singapore as an open-label pilot randomized controlled trial with 72 parents. Potential effectiveness of NeW-I and accessibility and feasibility of implementing and delivering the intervention are assessed. Discussion: NeW-I aspires to improve psycho-socio-spiritual well-being of parents facing their child’s chronic life-threatening illness through a structured cyber-counseling platform, thereby enhancing holistic pediatric palliative care and parental bereavement support services. Findings from this pilot study will inform the development of a standardized NeW-I protocol and further research to evaluate the efficacy of NeW-I in Singapore and in other Asian communities around the world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 496-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fadime Çinar*, Turgay Sirin

Background: One of the indispensable aspects of the philosophy of holistic care,and negative situations such as life-threatening illness, spiritual well-being, which isdefined as the search for a relationship with a divine soul, is a requirement that mustbe met in order to maintain the existence of the individual. The patient's need forsocial and spiritual well-being increases even more in cases of long-term treatment,such as cancer, that reduce the quality of life. Determining and meeting the spiritualneeds of the individual in the difficult times of the crisis can be realized bydetermining the spiritual well-being levels of the individuals and by providing theindividual spiritual care. This study was conducted to determine the level of thespiritual well-being of palliative care patients diagnosed with cancer. Methods: Thisis a descriptive study. The population of the study consisted of 124 patientsdiagnosed with cancer who were hospitalized in the palliative unit between Januaryand August 2018 and were treated in two state hospitals operating on the Europeanside of Istanbul. The sample consisted of 111 people with voluntary participationand communication. Personal Information Form and Spiritual Well-being Scalewere used to collect data. Data were evaluated by one-way analysis of variance (one-way anova) and significance (t-test) of the difference between the two means.Results: The total score averages from the spiritual good scale of individualsparticipating in the Study were determined to be good with x = 4,15. In terms ofthe level of education of Scale scores, only "Anomi" is significantly differentiatedbetween groups of age, with a total score of the scale, In the sub-dimension oftranscendity and the subdimension of "Harmony with Nature" according to thevariable metastasis (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Spiritual Well-being has a positive effecton the healing process of individuals with impaired health. It helps individuals whohave a crisis in life threatening diseases such as Cancer to cope with this crisis and toprovide spiritual well-being in the sense of life. In This process, spiritual careinitiatives by healthcare professionals can be transformed into a part of the healingprocess and the spiritual goodness of the individual can be increased. Furtherresearch in This area is projected to contribute to the richening of the relevantliterature in Turkey.Key words: Spiritual, spiritual well-being, palliative care, palliative care unit


2020 ◽  
pp. 138-153
Author(s):  
Raymond A. R. MacDonald ◽  
Graeme B. Wilson

This chapter focuses specifically upon the use of musical improvisation for health and well-being. It considers the fundamental features of improvisation and links them to possible improvements in health and well-being. A model showing the different types of communication processes involved is also presented. Improvisation has long been associated with the potential to bring about improvement in health. It is a key process used by music therapists and early texts outlining music therapy practice contained numerous examples of improvisational activities. This chapter draws these processes and potential outcomes together and explains four characteristics of musical improvisation identified as underpinning the health benefits: improvisation links conscious with unconscious processes; improvisation makes unique demands on cognition; improvisation facilitates creative interaction; and, improvisation enables the non-verbal expression of thoughts and feelings that may otherwise be difficult to express. When improvisation is viewed as a sophisticated form of social interaction, links to other non-musical contexts and the implications for health and well-being are clear.


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