Music therapy a tool for health care workers
Health care workers on the job through the coronavirus pandemic may have experienced new levels of stress that are difficult to describe.
A new partnership between the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Hospital and the Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) is launching a task force to bring music therapy to hospitals around the state.
Nicole Hahna, an associate professor of music at Slippery Rock University, is on the mid-Atlantic region chapter of the American Music Therapy Association. She said music therapy can be helpful in addressing symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The burnout can be hard to put into words,” she said. “We can help someone express how they are feeling and can use music as a form of communication.”
According to Hahna, hospitals will apply for grant funds through HAP, and they can set up therapy for staff members. Every hospital that is awarded can decide how to use the funds.
Michelle Muth is also a member of the task force and a graduate of SRU with degrees in music therapy and music education: piano. She now has her own business, M3 Music Therapy in Beaver County, where she leads clients through exercises, from musical improvisation to reception.“Maybe you haven't been able to process what's going on or even label those feelings,” Muth said. “A lot of it is helping the health care workers to feel heard, and music allows for non-verbal communication.”Music therapy could involve a client writing a song, learning to play an instrument, improvising music through playing an instrument such as the drums or just simply listening to music, according to Hahna. She said these methods may be able to help burned-out health care workers cope with their feelings.Hahna also said music therapists meet a client where they are, and that includes understanding their musical tastes.“We work with musicians, non-musicians: we assess what preferences they have, and we create a successful experience,” Hahna said. “If they say they don't like opera or country, but they like classic rock, we do classic rock.”
Muth said music therapy has been a practice since shortly after World War II, but access to it has grown in recent years. She said an objective of the American Music Therapy Association is to increase consumer access to music therapy and consumer protection. The new partnership will help, she said.A pilot program for health care workers at health systems in the southeast region of the state will mark the initial phase of this initiative, according to a news release from the Council on the Arts. Hahna said HAP aims to implement it elsewhere early next year.Hahna said bringing music therapy to health care workers could be vital to their mental health.“We anticipate some of those emotions will be more complex,” Hahna said. “We are hoping to be able to provide some of those very powerful tools to all the front-line workers responding to COVID.”
