May 10

Doctors use Music to help patients cope

From the NY Times

The Healing Power of Music

Music therapy is increasingly used to help patients cope with stress and promote healing.

By Richard Schiffman. April 8, 2021

“Focus on the sound of the instrument,” Andrew Rossetti, a licensed music therapist and researcher said as he strummed hypnotic chords on a Spanish-style classical guitar. “Close your eyes. Think of a place where you feel safe and comfortable.”

Music therapy was the last thing that Julia Justo, a graphic artist who immigrated to New York from Argentina, expected when she went to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Union Square Clinic for treatment for cancer in 2016. But it quickly calmed her fears about the radiation therapy she needed to go through, which was causing her severe anxiety.

“I felt the difference right away, I was much more relaxed,” she said.

Andrew Rossetti, a licensed music therapist in New York, uses guitar music and visualization exercises to help calm patients undergoing medical treatments.Credit…John Smith

Read more HERE from the NY Times

Apr 07

3 ways music is beneficial to your health

Mar 15, 2021 – McMaster University –

“Given the deep connection that most of us have with music, it should come as no surprise that researchers around the world continue to investigate music’s therapeutic benefits. Besides being enjoyable to listen to, music can help to improve walking speed, reduce anxiety around hospital stays, and improve overall behavioural issues in people with dementia. Music is a safe, simple, and inexpensive strategy; however, it continues to be an underused tool. Whether for yourself, or a loved one, consider incorporating more music into your everyday life and enjoy the many benefits it provides.”

…read more at:

https://www.mcmasteroptimalaging.org/blog/detail/hitting-the-headlines/2021/03/15/3-ways-music-is-beneficial-to-your-health

 

Mar 30

Healing power of music tapped for healthcare workers

“A virtual pilot study to investigate how music therapy can improve the mental health of healthcare workers has been launched by Simon Fraser University and Music Heals. The study will focus on the healing effects of music on healthcare workers who are at a higher risk of developing PTSD, trauma, depression and other mental health disorders.

Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic has added to their workload, increased stress and mental health concerns for healthcare professionals.”

…read more at”

https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2021/03/healing-power-of-music-tapped-for-healthcare-workers-in-new-stud.html

Mar 23

Support for live music

Artists in Healthcare are delighted and grateful for the Zita and Mark Bernstein Family Foundation’s gift to fund George Bajer-Koulack’s music at Misericordia Health Centre.  George is able to play inside, fully PPE trained, for residents, making a profound difference in their quality of life with his joyful, engaging presence.  Our sincere thanks for this most meaningful gift.

Feb 05

9 Health Benefits of Music

“Music can improve mood, decrease pain and anxiety, and facilitate opportunities for emotional expression. Research suggests that music can benefit our physical and mental health in numerous ways. Music therapy is used by our hospice and palliative care board-certified music therapist to enhance conventional treatment for a variety of illnesses and disease processes – from anxiety, depression and stress, to the management of pain and enhancement of functioning after degenerative neurologic disorders.”

“Max Lerman, Hospice and Palliative Care Music Therapist from Spiritual Care and Music Therapy at NorthShore, highlights some of the benefits music has on health and well-being:

It’s heart healthy. Research has shown that blood flows more easily when music is played. It can also reduce heart rate, lower blood pressure, decrease cortisol (stress hormone) levels and increase serotonin and endorphin levels in the blood.”

Read more by clicking the link!

From: https://www.northshore.org/healthy-you/9-health-benefits-of-music/#:~:text=Music%20therapy%20can%20relax%20an,It%20eases%20pain.

Jan 26

Papa Mambo Video for AIHM and MB Chamber Orchestra

Please find the most recent link to the Artists in Healthcare/MB Chamber Orchestra virtual music program, and share widely with your patients and staffs!
We will continue to post new recordings every week until we can resume outside, and eventually inside music to your hospitals and long-term care.

Jan 20

Why Being Creative is Good for You

By Beverley D’Silva
5th January 2021

BBC culture

“What is the key to creativity, and how does it help our mental health? Beverley D’Silva speaks to Artist’s Way author Julia Cameron and others about ‘flow’, fear and curiosity.

Creativity, according to Maya Angelou, is a bottomless pit: “The more you use it, the more you have,” said the novelist. “Creativity is intelligence having fun,” is a phrase often attributed to Einstein. While advertising supremo David Ogilvy came at it from a business perspective: “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative”. We know creativity is alive in all fields of life, from medicine to business and agriculture. But the word –  which derives from the Latin creare, to make – is most often associated with the arts and culture, and is believed to have first appeared in the 14th-Century literary work, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.”

Leonardo Da Vinci Painting The Mona Lisa By Cesare Maccari

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210105-why-being-creative-is-good-for-you

Read more by clicking the link above.

Jan 13

18th Century Music and Medicine

Medicine musica: the eighteenth-century rationalization of music and medicine

Daisy Fancourt
London, United Kingdom

Instruments de musique, 1770 Anne Vallayer-Coster Musée du Louvre, Paris

“Legends of music’s healing powers on both the mind and the body are estimated to go as far back as Paleolithic times, when music was believed to be a magic that could drive away the angry spirits that caused illness.

It wasn’t until the beginnings of learned medicine in the Greek-Roman, Arabic, Indian, and Chinese traditions that theories of music’s medicinal qualities began to be recorded. But from here on, they became a popular topic for discussion. In the Greek tradition alone, the Mycenean god Pajawo of 2000 BC used holy song to cure disease, and Apollo combined roles as healer and musician.

And even amongst mere mortals, The Odyssey told of the bleeding of Odysseus’s wounds from a wild boar only being stopped with a musical incantation; and the poet Pratinas in the 6th century BC recorded a plague in Sparta being quelled by the music of the composer Thaletas.”

from https://hekint.org/2017/01/30/medicine-musica-the-eighteenth-century-rationalization-of-music-and-medicine/ 

Read more at the link above!

Jan 06

Music as Therapy in the Ottoman Empire

Painting by Nil Sari depicting the treatment of an insane patient by musical therapy.

Ottoman Music Therapy

“Music has been used as a mean of therapy through the centuries to counter all kinds of disorders by various peoples. Physicians and musicians in the Ottoman civilization were aware of the music therapy in continuation of previous Muslim similar practices. There are numerous manuscripts and pamphlets on the influence of sound on man and the effect of music in healing, both in works on medicine and music. Ideas of Al-Farabi, Al-Razi and Ibn Sina on music were followed by several Ottoman physicians.”

by Nil Sari

from https://muslimheritage.com/ottoman-music-therapy/

Click on the link to read more!

Jan 05

Art and Recovery at CAMH

While art in hospitals is believed to provide comfort and promote recovery, it’s still a donor-driven effort.

WENCY LEUNG HEALTH REPORTER
TORONTO, 

Photo of Rebecca Baird’s art installation at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Please refer to Artists in Healthcare’s annual report to read about our Art in Hospital Donation program which has recieved $359,000 of donated art given to Manitoba hospitals over the last two years.