Milford Music Therapy

My name is Karen Kelly I am one of the Senior Music Therapist here in Milford Care Centre.  Music Therapy is beneficial for somebody who is going through palliative care in a number of ways.  It can help to reduce higher levels of anxiety or stress, it can help to improve mood and can help with sleep issues to help overall to improve somebody’s quality of life.  When we meet patients for the first time we discuss what their individual needs are and we discuss how we are going to use music to meet their therapeutic goals.  Even something as simple as the patients choice of music can be really important.  If somebody is feeling particularly sad or low in mood on a day the choice of music might reflect that. We all have this tendency whether its conscious or unconscious to choose music that really validates our emotions so one of the project that we run here in Milford through the music therapy department is the live music for relaxation broadcast.  So that’s a half and hour of live relaxing piano music that is played by one of our therapists which is streamed through the tvs into each of the patients room but we like to make it as inclusive as possible so we ask patients for their input.  They will request pieces of music.  Their families can make requests.  It is about making it as inclusive as we can and it’s a really nice way of keeping everybody connected.  One case that stands out to me is a man that was referred for relaxation to help reduce his anxiety and stress levels and to help him to settle into the unit and to make the experience more comfortable for him and live keyboard music of his preference was played at the bedside and he immediately started to relax and at the end of the session described it as calming his mind.

So music therapy is a valuable part of the holistic approach here in Milford Care Centre.