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Welcome
Bev Foster, Executive Director
For me, music has both formed and helped me express my spirituality. It may be that way because music appeals to the human spirit and is inextricably linked to our longings, desires and deepest, inner parts. Music may bypass habitual defences and provide easier access to the deeper places. The depths may be psychological, spiritual, personal involving past experiences, unresolved issues or relationships. Experiencing music may bring inner exploration and an enhanced sense of perceptions, pleasure, hope, relatedness to self, others and God, courage and personal growth.
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The spiritual meaning of pre-loss music therapy to bereaved caregivers of advanced cancer patients
Lucanne Magill, DA, MT-BC, University of Windsor, School of Music
Advanced cancer and concomitant end-of-life issues can cause heartfelt suffering in patients and their caregivers. Individuals coping with these challenges may experience physical health and psychosocial difficulties, as well as dilemmas regarding faith, hope, identity, and belonging. Spiritual concerns tend to play a significant role in the lives of cancer patients and their loved ones during these periods of grief and loss. Whereas it is understood that music therapy plays an important role in those contending with the end of life, the impact of this therapy on the spiritual realm in caregivers is less understood. There is little research that has specifically explored the spiritual influences of these sessions on caregivers in the period after the death of a loved one. This study, therefore, aimed to improve understanding regarding how music therapy sessions, held during the patient’s final stages of life, impact the caregiver’s time in bereavement. It also aimed to explore the specific aspects of spirituality, as impacted by music therapy, deemed significant by caregivers.
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Healing Vibrations
RoJean Loucks, BS, MS, CMP
Purchased for my own entertainment, to share with our children and grandchildren in the privacy of our home, that little 22-string harp arrived out of tune, feeling awkward and unfamiliar in my arms. As I gradually learned the tuning and playing intricacies needed to produce pleasing sounds, friends learned of this new musical venture, and begged me to play for them. Easing the stress of a friend dealing with a damaged relationship and another recovering from breast cancer; summoned by a hospitalized neighbor, restless and unable to sleep following surgery; accompanying my elderly mother into the impersonal cubicle of the pre-op ward; and visiting a frightened colleague who’d given birth ten weeks early, all with a harp in my arms and music in my soul, gave me a deep respect for the healing power of music and motivated me to further explore the growing applications of therapeutic music.
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Episodes of Relationship Completion Through Song: Case studies of music therapy research in palliative care
Amy Clements-Cortes, BMT, MusM, MTA, PhD, Senior Music Therapist, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Board Member: Canadian Association of Music Therapy, Room 217 Foundation
This article has been reprinted with the kind permission of author Amy Clements-Cortes.
The arts including music are a key source of knowledge and meaning about ourselves as human beings and the world around us. They have taught me about beauty, passion, happiness, emotions, and pleasure. I charge that music teaches us, and is a very powerful way of learning about relationships. I believe that the ultimate defining quality and value of music that makes it so vital is its power to make us feel, become aware of, and express our feelings and emotions in a way that we are often not able to do through words alone. Sloboda (1992) confirms that strong and valued emotions appear to be at the heart of engagement with music.
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Book Review: The Heart Does Break: Canadian Writers on Grief and Mourning
Jean Baird & George Bowering, Random House Canada: 2009, 368pp
The newly released 351 page collection, currently available in hardcover, was compiled and edited by George Bowering and Jean Baird after the sudden death of Baird’s twenty-three year old daughter, Bronwyn. In the midst of profound grief following Bronwyn’s death, Baird turned to books in an attempt to make sense of the senseless. After reading numerous works by grief counsellors and psychologists, she realized that what she was really searching for were stories by people who had experienced the death of a loved one. Together with her husband, Bowering, Baird created that very book.
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Ethical Issues Regarding Palliative Sedation
Margaret Van Dyck, RN, BScN, CHPCN
The article "Confused, Restless, Agitated- Can We Cope?" (Doorway, May 2009) addressed the symptom of delirium or agitation in end-of-life care and reviewed some of the complexity in managing such a commonly occurring symptom in palliative care. Palliative sedation, the term commonly applied to the use of sedation "to control refractory symptoms in patients near the end of life" (1), can be used to control physical symptoms such as agitation, restlessness, pain, nausea and vomiting, and dyspnea, to name a few. While relief of suffering is central to good palliative care, the practice of palliative sedation is more controversial when the aim is to treat not physical symptoms but instead, uncontrolled psychosocial or existential suffering. Experts in the area can be found on both sides of this issue, with some convinced that the ethical lines are becoming blurred, and this practice might be the start of a slippery slope to euthanasia (2).
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Rooms Around the World
Profiles hospices, hospitals, long term care facilities and people using or beginning to use music in therapeutic ways.
If your organization would like to be featured in Rooms Around the World send us a picture and share a unique aspect of it with our readers.
This issue:
Music Therapy: Harry R. Horvitz Center, Cleveland Clinic
Music Care Training: Room 217 and Life & Death Matters Online
It’s Worth It: A Student of Dementia, Kansas City
The Peace Train: A Musical Joy Ride, South Africa
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Music Note
Music Note tells the story behind the songs of Room 217.
Londonderry Air (Danny Boy) Traditional Irish, (Celtic Whisperings)
The Londonderry Air is an Irish anthem which is popular throughout the world. The “air” or melody’s title comes from the County Derry in Ireland and was transcribed by Jane Ross to be published in the 1855 book The Ancient Music of Ireland, edited by music collector George Petrie. The most recent research claims the origin of this tune came from the late 1700’s from a song called Aislean an Oigfear (Audley,2000). Londonderry Air is played as the Northern Ireland anthem at the Commonwealth Games.
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So, What’s a YURT?
A Lifetime of Music – Michele’s story
A Life Well Lived
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Recollections™
Companion DVD provides 61 minutes of beautiful images accompanied by the gentle music of
Room 217. 
Click here to order.
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About Our Song Selection Survey
Room 217’s Box Set, Vol.2 of therapeutic music is in development! Complete this short survey and let us know what songs you would like to see included!
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About Room 217 Music Care Online Course
Room 217 is partnering with Life and Death Matters to offer Music Care: Caring for the dying person with music. Presented by Bev Foster, the course begins February 25th. REGISTER NOW!
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About the
MT-SCC
Conference
The Music Therapy and Supportive Cancer Care Conference will be held March 26 - 28, 2010 in Windsor, Ontario, it will bring together international, multidisciplinary experts in oncology treatment, research and education to advance quality care to patients and caregivers across the lifespan and the continuum of illness.
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About the
COPING Centre
COPING provides a safe place to mourn. This non profit, charitable organization offers help and encouragement at no cost to participants. Glenn and Roslyn Crichton trained with Dr. Alan Wolfelt who continues to support and encourage their work. Branches in Ontario and Alberta offer programs for all ages.
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About
ASEJ
Symposium
Arts for Social and Environmental Justice Symposium. The Laurier Centre for Music in the Community and the Royal Conservatory in partnership with ISIS Canada and the European Graduate school are hosting this timely symposium addressing arts education and its connection to social and environmental issues on Saturday, May 15, 2010 in Toronto. Call for papers is now open.
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The capacity to care is the thing that gives life its deepest meaning and significance. Pablo Casals
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