Music Therapy Can Improve End of Life Quality
There’s music that never fails to stick in your brain. The tune that inspires you to dance, or at the very least tap your foot in time. the musical and lyrical medley that takes you back to a memorable time. Music has great power.
Music has the power to bring happiness, comfort, and a reduction in anxiety for those who are terminally ill or dying. Hospice patients who receive music therapy are better able to cope with their emotions and enjoy their dying days.
In fact, a 2018 study from Brown University discovered that listening to music helped patients in hospice or palliative care experience decreased discomfort, anxiety, nausea, and depressive symptoms. For more information about the advantages of music therapy for hospice patients and elders, keep reading.
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Music Therapy Aids in Emotional Processing in Patients
An outlet is music. It’s a way to express one’s creativity. Patients might utilize music to explore feelings like fear, rage, and guilt while coping with their circumstances.
One advantage of music therapy in palliative care or hospice care is that it helps elevate a patient’s mood and lessen anxiety related to passing away, leaving loved ones, or dealing with pain.
Music therapy can assist hospice patients in addressing emotions and reducing depressed symptoms, as well as boosting spirits and fostering social connections. Additionally, music can help patients and their families get started on the road to recovery by helping them go through the grief process.
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Use music to create new memories and explore old ones.
Some folks have a life’s soundtrack. They have tunes that are associated with memorable occasions. They recall participating in church hymn singing as children, dancing to music with their spouse at their wedding, or singing a particular ballad every time they went out for karaoke with friends.
Music can serve as a musical life review for hospice patients, bringing back these experiences. Additionally, it offers patients the ability to develop new memories through music-making and listening together, or even to reconnect with family members over shared experiences.
Music can help dementia patients speak, recall long-forgotten memories, and lessen agitation. Even in their final stages of the disease, many dementia sufferers still identify and interact with musical pieces.
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Anxiety Can Be Reduced Through Music Therapy
It might be frightful to die and leave behind loved ones. Patients in hospice may worry about the future or what will happen to them when they pass away. They might be concerned about their relationship with God, how to handle sorrow, or how their loved ones would cope without them.
All of the aforementioned anxieties are legitimate ones. Hospice patients who get music therapy find relief from these worries. It has been demonstrated that listening to music helps lessen stress by lowering the body’s cortisol levels.
The melodies that patients hear and generate as they unwind while relaxing with music may cause a decrease in their heart rate and blood pressure.
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Music May Help With Pain Management
Can music alleviate bodily discomfort? It may be possible. According to some experts, music therapy can release hormones, including endorphins. They can change how we perceive pain, and less pain may be felt since there are more endorphins.
Serotonin, the happy hormone, can be released while enjoying a favorite music. Music has the power to positively impact someone’s mood and improve their day. Music therapy can assist patients in shifting their attention from their symptoms to pleasant memories and connections in order to manage chronic pain, such as discomfort at the end of life.
Patients receiving palliative or hospice care who use music therapy frequently report feeling less discomfort. In addition to or in conjunction with other methods of pain and symptom management, music therapy is available. And not just the elderly benefit from music therapy. Music therapy can help people of all ages, especially those who have been told they have a terminal illness.
