Elton John said, “Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours”.

What would you want to listen to in your last days? Do you have a song or an album you would want played on repeat just because of the memories it brought to you? Like your wedding song or a song your mom sang to you as a child.

For hospice and palliative care patients, music has the power to reach parts of them that caregivers may not otherwise be able to tap into. It is a non-threatening, enjoyable, positive distraction for patients at the end of life stage. It can enhance brain function and has the power to promote wellness of the whole person.

“Music can heal wounds that medicine cannot touch” – Debasish Mridha

Emotional and Social Healing:

Connection: Music can help establish or re-establish relationships. It provides connection to past memories, family members they share those memories with and their caregivers. It connects them back to happy thoughts and memories that provide joy and reminds them of the “good ol’ days”. And it can provide connection with their religion or their culture that they may not be able to get otherwise.

Promotes positive self-esteem: As patients at the end of life sing songs from childhood or learn a new song or skill, it makes them feel better about themselves. It shows them that there are still things that they know and can do and heightens their self-esteem.

Increases Social Interaction: People who have a hard time communicating, but still love the joy of music and singing generally enjoy it even more with a group. Music can help increase their interactions with others by surrounding them with “like minded people” who enjoy it just as much. It can provide a type of communication for those that may not communicate as easily.

It’s Personal: Music can draw from someone’s culture, religion, and precious memories making it deeply personal to the patient. One song can trigger memories for a patient with dementia from their childhood or early days of marriage and kids. They may not remember their nurse from yesterday, but they remember the old hymns they sang in the second row of church while their kids were in Sunday School. It can provide that introspection and reflection on where they have been in life and where they want to be in their final days.

Physical Healing:

Energizes Patients: Music encourages moving and singing which can help energize patients who may not get much movement and provided the endorphins that help make you happy.

Improves Motor Coordination: Just as it helps to energize, encouraging movement and singing also helps to improve motor skills by clapping their hands, patting their legs, or tapping their toes. Music can truly be felt from head to feet.

Enhanced communication and speech: My grandmother has developed a stutter after being through four strokes. But when she sings songs to my son that she used to sing to us, the stutter disappears. Why? She remembers the songs and does not have to think about what she wants to say. The songs have a rhythm and flow to them that trigger the speech part of her brain and it makes her slow down and actually pronounce the words. When she is trying to have a regular conversation, she’s thinking about what she wants to say and her words sometimes get ahead of her brain, so she stutters until her words and her brain are on the same page. Singing something she already knows, allows her to eliminate the “thinking part” and sing a song, almost like a habit. She just does it.

Improved Relaxation: Just as a soft lullaby can calm a fussy baby, music has the ability to calm and help bring peacefulness to someone who may be in their final days. I read a story of a patient who loved Frank Sinatra. So, her caregivers played his CD over and over and over again for her because it brought her a sense of calmness and order in her home. She passed away holding the hand of her husband, listening to their first dance wedding song. At peace.

Music is one of those things that has the ability to touch us deep in our soul…and then it lives there. For some it reminds them of their younger days. For some, it’s a reminder of where they’ve come from and how they’ve grown. And for others, it’s a reminder they are not alone. Some days we need the rhythm of the music. And some days we need the lyrics. Either way, music has the power to connect us and to heal us at a deeper level. What has music done for you?

The Beauty of Music in Hospice Care