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Healing Sounds

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

By KATRICE HARDY

BY KATRICE HARDY

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

WITH HER EYES CLOSED and head bobbing from side to side, Carol Gore nestled comfortably in her chair and listened.

No one had ever played live music for her in a hospital. It certainly hadnt happened during her recent 28-day stint at Maryview hospital in Portsmouth for an infection that had seeped into her kidneys and forced her to go on dialysis.

But here was Joyce Hynes, a kind woman with reading glasses and a rolling cart, strumming a guitar, making Gore feel at ease.

A floral gown and thick blanket covered Gores body. But her hands were free, and she used them to tap her fingers on the sides of her chair. Not even hospital sounds the beeps of medical equipment or the intercom pages for doctors could interfere with her concentration.

As Hynes played, she moved her eyes from her guitar, to her sheet music, to her patient. She needed to be sure Gore was breathing properly and that the music was soothing.

When she finished, Hynes smiled and packed up her cart.

Thank you, Gore said. It was just so revitalizing. I guess thatd be the right word. I was down in the dumps.

I wish you could come every day.

Maryview is the latest hospital in South Hampton Roads to turn to music to help heal patients.

Rita Mosley, Maryviews vice president for missions, said administrators realize that health care isnt solely about improving someones physical well-being.

When someones psyche or spirit is taken care of, their physical well-being is uplifted, she said.

Music therapy has been slow to catch on in the United States, mostly because there werent many studies to determine how music affected patients, said Jim Borling, director of musical therapy at Radford University. Radford is one of two colleges in the state the other is Shenandoah University in Winchester that offers such a program. It merges lessons in music and medicine to produce graduates who understand both professions and can provide alternative treatments.

In recent years research has shown that musical therapy works, Borling said. He pointed to a 2001 study at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center that has helped persuade health-care providers. The study showed that music lowered stress levels and helped build immune systems of young cancer patients.

Now hospital administrators arent asking if music therapy works; theyre trying to determine which approach is best.

Take local hospitals, for example.

Some hire music practitioners like Hynes, who attend a series of weekend training sessions. Their focus is on soothing and calming patients, but they are not involved in patient care.

Others hire musical therapists, who earn a bachelors degree and are trained to work with a team of medical practitioners to determine patient care.

Sentara Healthcares hospital in Williamsburg has a 26-piece drum set that a handful of its workers sometimes play.

A volunteer harpist visits rooms at Childrens Hospital of The Kings Daughters in Norfolk a couple of days a week.

And at Obici Hospital in Suffolk, a group of nurses, occasionally with a member of the hospitals radiation or cleaning team, sings to patients, visiting rooms much like carolers do during the Christmas season.

The hospitals dont have hard statistics that show how music has helped individual patients. But doctors and therapists know the music doesnt harm patients.

Cynthia Mosley, a therapist at Chesapeake General Hospital, has seen how it can help. She works in the adult behavior service program, a psychiatric unit for people with Alzheimers disease, dementia, depression and bipolar disorders. Mosley uses live or recorded music tunes familiar to patients to help them improve and retain their memories and their motor and communication skills.

She recalled a recent experience with a patient in need of a CAT scan.

The patient refused. She was scared. Through time and music, I worked with her. I gave her headphones with music. On testing day she listened to music, and I walked with her to get her CAT scan. Music gave her something else to think about.

A desire to help people and a love of music are what got Hynes, 53, into music therapy more than 15 years ago.

She started as an activities director at a local nursing home, entertaining residents and playing bedside music.

She read about the music practitioner program in an air line magazine three years ago and realized she could merge her passion into a profession.

She enrolled in a program in New York earlier this year and finished the weekend training sessions and her internship this summer.

There, she learned what types of music are best for certain conditions.

For a dying patient, for example, she plays songs that lack set rhythms. The idea is to play something to allow the patient to let go, Hynes said last month as she sat in her office between patient visits at Maryview.

For cardiac patients, she may watch their breathing before selecting music that matches the rhythm of their inhaling and exhaling.

I provide a healing environment, so I dont play what people would like to hear but what I think they need to listen to.

Anytime you want me to stop, you say so, Hynes said to Beatrice Permuy, a pneumonia patient at Maryview. Sit back. Relax. Close your eyes if you want to.

This is my third time in the hospital since the first of this year, Permuy, 73, said. It hasnt been fun.

I read when I can. Ive read John Grishams latest book, but a lot of times I just lay here.

Hynes flipped through her music as she listened.

She smiled at Permuy when she found what she was looking for.

She hadnt used her voice all day.

Now was the time.

Ohhhhh, ooohh, Hynes hummed.

Ooooooooooh, ooooh,

Permuy closed her eyes, clearly relaxed, and didnt open them again.

Not even when Hynes left.

* Reach Katrice Hardy at (757) 222-5857 or katrice.franklin@ pilotonline.com.

Source: Virginian - Pilot

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