Music helps patients tune out their troubles
St. Paul’s Hospital music program brings happiness and reduces stress and anxiety
Lying on his back in a hospital bed, George Frederick closed his eyes to listen. On the violin, Lucy Thomas played Amazing Grace.
At one point, obviously moved, Frederick brushed away tears from both eyes.
“What comes up for you, George, when you listen to Amazing Grace?” asked Thomas, a music therapist.
“I think of my lady, Marion.” Later, after listening to the same song a second time, Frederick, 91, said it made him feel guilty for not loving his wife as much as he felt he should.
Marion visits her husband almost every day at St. Paul’s Hospital. When Marion, who has multiple sclerosis, can’t make it, they talk on the phone. The couple recently celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary.
Frederick is one of the participants in the hospital’s music therapy program in palliative care. He said that Thomas’s music is something he looks forward to hearing.
“One thing I do know,” said Frederick, “is that there is very little pain or no pain when I know she is going to be here in the next little while to play a song. I’m pleased and happy that someone like her is here and plays a song she knows and plays it so well. She brings it out of you.”
Thomas said the therapeutic benefits of music therapy include reducing stress and anxiety as well as combating loneliness and boredom.
“It also gives patients a sense of control back over their lives,” Thomas said.
“When you’re in hospital, a lot of your control is taken away. You don’t get to choose when you eat your meals, when you have your procedures, when you have your medications. Music offers a choice which gives patients a real sense of autonomy and control.”
While the awareness of the healing properties of music go back thousands of years, its specific therapeutic benefits are more recent. As a profession, music therapy began to emerge in the early 20th century when it was noticed that music played for injured soldiers recovering in hospitals helped them heal.
In 1960, pioneer Norma Sharpe surveyed the use of music in hospitals across the country. In 1974, she helped organize Canada’s first music therapy conference in St. Thomas, Ont.
The Music Therapy Association of B.C. has about 200 members, of which about 20 work in hospitals. Thomas has worked as a music therapist at St. Paul’s for about 18 months.
Thomas said when a new patient arrives in palliative care, she’ll go into their room, introduce herself, say “I’m a music therapist” and outline the benefits of music therapy.
“I’ll ask them: ‘ What type of music do you like? What’s your favourite genre? Which artists do you like?’ I get them talking and if it’s something they’re interested in, I’ll ask them if I can play a song. Quite often I’ll get positive feedback.”
She said she always makes a point of letting patients know that it’s their decision to make whether to take part in music therapy.
“If someone wants to say no, that’s their choice. There isn’t too much in the hospital that you’re allowed to say no to. Lots of people say yes.”
Thomas, who started playing violin at age three, said patients can choose to listen to her sing or play an instrument. They can also get involved themselves by choosing to sing or play one of the hospital’s instruments which include a violin, guitar and tambourine.
Playing an instrument can give some patients a voice.
They’re the ones who don’t say much if asked to describe in words how they’re feeling. But give the same patient a musical instrument and all of a sudden she or he is much more able to express what’s going on inside.
“It’s the same with listening to old songs and talking about what the lyrics mean,” she said.
“It can be a starting point to talking about how they’re feeling.”
Thomas can also make a Life Review CD with a patient based on the songs that were important to them at various stages of their life.
“I’ll often record patients telling little stories and sharing memories associated with the songs that we put on,” Thomas said.
“It’s very therapeutic to sit back and listen to your life in music.”
She encourages people to write songs with her. Sometimes patients have their own lyrics that they want to set to music. Thomas helps them pick chords and the melody. They can also choose an existing popular song and add their own words and phrases.
“It gives them a sense of purpose, accomplishment, and something to work on. (It’s) something to distract them from what they’re going through.”
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