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.
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