Music Therapy is beneficial to those at the end of life. Music therapy is an evidence-based clinical practice. The rigor of Music Therapy requires that goals and interventions are based on evidence found in previous studies. The main goal of Music Therapy in Hospice and Palliative care is to enhance the overall quality of life for the patients. The enhanced quality of life can be seen throughout many different interventions which allow patients to create meaningful and purposeful responses, not simply listen.
Music Therapy Interventions
Over the past several decades there have been multiple studies testing the vast variety of music therapy interventions that are used in Hospice care. Below are some brief descriptions of interventions and the benefits associated with those interventions. Each intervention is used in reaction to a goal established by the music therapist or a member of the interdisciplinary team.
Top 5 Music Therapy Interventions
Legacy Leaving: The patient, family, and music therapist review the patient’s life through creating songs, projects, or improvisation. These interventions can provide opportunities for patients and their families to find closure. Topics of this intervention can cover emotional needs, fond memories, or moments for family members.
Life Review: Music therapy is unique in that music infiltrates all parts of the brain, allowing for a greater reminisce opportunities (Ashida, 2000). Highly structured music based life review can allow the patient to attempt to reminiscence with past memories that the patient was unable to previously. The patient often requires simple direct prompts from the MT-BC to set the patient up for success.
Procedural Support Music Therapy: Music therapist can provide support during a patient’s personal care or procedures. This can vary from creating stimuli to help a patient eat, decrease anxiety during a shower, or decrease agitation during personal care.
Iso-princple: The music therapist meets the patient at their current state of being and then decreases or increases the musical stimulus to increase patient’s comfort. This may be volume, rhythm, cadence or some mixture. When a live music stimulus is created the patient’s pain often immediately decreases due to the Pain Gate theory (O’Callaghan, 1996).
Instrument Play: Music Therapists use instruments to meet the patient’s current areas of need. Patients select an instrument to play from two options provided by the music therapist. For those patients unable to choose the music therapist offers an instrument based on appropriate stimulation and function level. This has several benefits, such as: promoting autonomy, maintaining fine and gross motor skills, emotional expression, and engaging in active participation.
Beneficial Articles
Burns, D. S., Perkins, S. M., Tong, Y., Hilliard, R. E., & Cripe, L. D. (2015). Music therapy is associated with family perception of more spiritual support and decreased breathing problems in cancer patients receiving hospice care. Journal of pain and symptom management, 50(2), 225-231.
Gallagher, L. M., Lagman, R., Bates, D., Edsall, M., Eden, P., Janaitis, J., & Rybicki, L. (2017). Perceptions of family members of palliative medicine and hospice patients who experienced music therapy. Supportive Care in Cancer, 25(6), 1769-1778.
Hilliard, R. E. (2005). Music therapy in hospice and palliative care: a review of the empirical data. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2(2), 173-178.
Krout, R. E. (2001). The effects of single-session music therapy interventions on the observed and self-reported levels of pain control, physical comfort, and relaxation of hospice patients. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine®, 18(6), 383-390.
Lawrence, S. (2019). The use of lullabies in hospice music therapy (Doctoral dissertation).
Krout, R. E. (2001). The effects of single-session music therapy interventions on the observed and self-reported levels of pain control, physical comfort, and relaxation of hospice patients. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine®, 18(6), 383-390.