Artists in Healthcare Manitoba has been members of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare since 2004 and participate yearly in the Society’s international conference. When AIHM is looking for research to support our work, we access the Arts in Healthcare research database maintained in partnership by the Society for the Arts in Healthcare and the University of Florida Center for the Arts in Healthcare. If you are an arts in healthcare practitioner or looking for research to support grant applications please consider purchasing an affiliate membership.
The Benefits of Music In Health Care
Written/Compiled by St. Boniface Volunteer Donna Krawetz
An elderly man suffering from dementia becomes calm, alert and engaged in singing along with his fellow residents as a sense of joy and community takes hold among them.1 A child in a pediatric oncology clinic is invited to conduct a string quartet playing a selection of her choice, for the moment distracted from the reason she is in a hospital and empowered by participating in an enlivening activity she can control.2 A woman recovering from a stroke who cannot speak hastens her recovery by mouthing words to familiar songs and tapping her fingers in time with the tune.3 These scenes, spanning a diversity of people and health conditions, illustrate the universal power of music to stimulate well-being and healing.
While the use of music to promote health has been practiced by different cultures throughout human history, today many health care institutions are integrating music into their spectrum of services for patients.
