Services

Music Therapy Services at LRMC

Music therapy services are provided free of charge to patients at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center.  The Florida State University provides funding for a full time board certified music therapist at the hospital.  This MT-BC (Music Therapist – Board Certified) also supervises music therapy interns at LRMC, who come from various colleges and universities around the country.

Music Therapy for Premature Infants

Music therapy benefits premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) through "multimodal stimulation", an intervention based on infant development.  This kind of music therapy involves lullaby singing with or without guitar accompaniment, infant massage, rocking, and encouragement of eye contact.  The goal is to increase premature infants' tolerance to different kinds of stimulation without becoming over-stimulated.  Research shows that multimodal stimulation can result in decreased stress behaviors, increased daily weight gain, and shorter hospital stays.  Babies who receive multimodal stimulation can go home up to 11 days sooner than babies who don't receive it!  Parents and caregivers can be trained to do multimodal stimulation with their infant at home to further the baby's development and enhance parent-child bonding.

Music Therapy for Children

To a child, the hospital is a very scary place.  Pediatric patients experience many of the same situations as adult patients, but children often don't have the reasoning ability to make sense of it all.  They are sometimes left alone in an unfamiliar environment where most of their human interaction is spent during a medical procedure that may hurt or be uncomfortable.  Parents are not always able to be with their hospitalized children, and when they are, anxiety and worry inevitably set in.  Music therapy can be very effective to alleviate some of these innate concerns in children and parents.  Among several other benefits, music therapy allows pediatric patients to make decisions, increasing autonomy and sense of control over uncontrollable circumstances.  Music therapy gives sick kids an opportunity to socialize with hospital staff in a positive way, and often interact with other kids in similar situations.  Activities are designed to elicit positive responses and communication through music and musical play.  In several hospitals, music therapists have been successful in eliminating the need for sedation during noninvasive procedures like echocardiograms and CT scans, and reducing the trauma of other medical procedures for pediatric patients.

Music Therapy for Adults

Adult patients at LRMC can receive music therapy services for a variety of reasons.  Clinical staff request music therapy for patients experiencing pain, anxiety, agitation, depression, difficulty communicating, confusion, minimal stimulation, isolation, extended hospitalization, spiritual need, and end of life.

Music Therapy for LRMC Staff

The demands of a fast-paced, high-stress medical setting can certainly have an adverse affect on nurses, therapists, case managers, secretaries, physicians, directors, housekeeping, nutrition services, and everyone around.  On Thursday afternoons, the music therapist goes to various hospital units and staff areas to provide one song (selected by the staff members) for the staff to give them a chance to relax, re-energize, take a break, and/or have a little bit of fun for just a few minutes.  As the staff gathers around the nurses’ station or lounge, they are given a variety of percussion and rhythm instruments to play.  They are encouraged to sing along with the music therapist, and often some staff members dance around.  Staff MT lasts only 3-5 minutes, but several staff members say that they look forward to “Happy Thursday” all week long.
This is also a great opportunity for the music therapist to continue staff education about the benefits of music therapy for their patients.  It is quite common for family members or patients themselves to wander out of their rooms toward the music to see what’s going on, which often results in a request for MT services. 


"Happy Thursday" with 2nd floor staff

3rd floor staff singing and dancing to "YMCA"

Taking a break for staff music therapy on the 4th floor