Healing with music
The power of music is well documented. For a sick child, the gift of music can make the hospital experience more pleasant, provide a creative outlet and even positively affect the way a child experiences anxiety and pain. Paige's Music Program at Children's Memorial Hospital is providing healing and coping benefits for a number of children, especially those who are hospitalized for long periods of time.
The hospital's Board Certified Music Therapists interact with kids in a variety of ways. They gently strum guitars to soothe children in discomfort or sing lullabies to babies in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit . They lead groups designed to energize kids and get them to interact with each other, and encourage children to write song lyrics that reflect how they're feeling. This is especially valuable for kids who are reluctant to talk about their illnesses. A therapist may give a child a “rain stick,” a wooden instrument that, when turned upside down makes a soothing, meditative sound that can help them relax.
“Everyone responds to treatment differently, and every child has a different way they experience their physical and emotional worlds,” says Victoria Storm, manager of the hospital's Child Life team, who oversees the program. “We work in conjunction with a multidisciplinary team of caregivers to tailor specific music therapy goals for that child.”
Music has long been a part of the hospital experience at Children's Memorial. Many well-known musicians and singers have performed in the Janice and Kimberly Brown Family Life Center on the 5th floor, while volunteer musicians sing and play songs in the hospital's outpatient areas. Skylight TV, the hospital's interactive television station, broadcasts “Morning Jam with Jim” a sing-along program, featuring hospital chaplain Jim Manzardo. Through the Snow City Arts program, hospitalized children can learn to play instruments and write and record their own songs with hospital artists-in-residence.
For children experiencing pain or anxiety due to their illnesses, or for those undergoing painful procedures, music therapy can be especially valuable.
“Music therapy can help shift the experience of pain, because of the way it works with our perceptions and emotions,” says Storm. “By listening and participating, a child can learn to dial down their pain through a technique called ‘entrainment,' which works in a way similar to guided imagery or meditation.”
Paige's Music Program at Children's Memorial is one of many Family Services programs at the hospital that rely on philanthropic support, including art therapy and Child Life. Storm says that through philanthropy, Children's Memorial has been able to add yet another dimension to treating the whole child.
“Through the generosity of families whose lives have been profoundly touched by music, we can now bring music therapy to the bedside for children who are in pain, for families who are anxious and confused and for kids who need a way to express themselves,” she says. “It's such a beautiful gift – the gift of music.”
Paige's Music Program is named for Paige Katsiavelos, whose family provided essential seed funding for music therapy at Children's Memorial. The program also is supported by Potbelly Sandwich Works and an anonymous donor.