This week is World Music Therapy Week (10 April to 16 April) where we celebrate and advocate for increased awareness of music therapy around the world.
Music Therapy is a research-based practice and profession in which music is used to actively support people as they strive to improve their health, functioning and wellbeing. Music therapists incorporate a range of music making methods within and through a therapeutic relationship. Music therapy is different from music education and entertainment as it focuses on health, functioning and wellbeing.
The Music Therapy Service at Monash Health provides support to patients across five sites and includes patients from paediatrics, adult mental health, adult rehabilitation, adult palliative care and at-risk disadvantaged youth.
Forming part of the clinical music therapy and auditory environment programs at Monash Health, the Service aligns with the World Health Organisation’s evidence-based findings in 2019, identifying a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health and the management and treatment of illnesses.
Music Therapist Annette Baron, who has been working at Monash Health for 20 years, highlights the important role Music Therapy can play. “We know Music Therapy improves mood and enhances recovery from traumatic experiences, so we help our patients use music to decrease their stress and anxiety, or cope with their recovery.” she said. Seeing how this positively impacts patient experience and the joy this also brings to staff highlights the unique role music therapy plays in our healthcare environment.
To mark World Music Therapy Week, we acknowledge some of the recent initiatives from our Music Therapy team across Monash Health.
Environmental Music at Monash Children’s Hospital and Casey Hospital
Last Thursday, Music Therapy students on placement with Monash Health livened the halls of Casey Hospital and Monash Children’s Hospital (MCH) with piano, guitar and vocals.
At Casey Hospital, Music Therapist Carena Khoo, and Melbourne University student Olivia Chamoun played soothing music in the main foyer. They received compliments and positive feedback, as the calming tunes produced a relaxing atmosphere for people’s arrival to the hospital.
Recent Music Therapy presentations
Monash Health’s music therapists Annette Baron and Carena Khoo had the opportunity to present a case study and clinical findings on the benefits of Music Therapy at the Rehab for Kids Conference.
Their paper, titled “Walking to the beat: the role of music therapy in supporting paediatric patients with an acquired brain injury (ABI)” drew on results from a clinical case study, finding that utilising a neurologic music therapy technique called Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation helped a patient improve their gait.
The technique uses music calculated to a specific beat for individual patients, and helps to improve the fluency of their walk by stimulating the motor cortex in the brain – where the brain interprets the beat and naturally starts walking to the rhythm of the music.
Our adult music therapy team also recently presented at the MONARC seminar series highlighting the role music therapy plays in supporting agitation and confusion management in patients with behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and delirium.
For more information on the benefits of Music Therapy, please visit the Australian Music Therapy Association website.
Approved by Dani Ryan