Music Therapy for End of Life Care

Course overview

Music therapy for end-of-life care involves playing music on a variety of instruments, singing, listening to music, and performing music based on the patient's preferences. The goal is to enhance the person's quality of life by relieving or easing a variety of symptoms present during this time, addressing psychological needs unique to dying patients, offering support to, and facilitating communication between, both the family and the patient, and meeting some of the spiritual needs of the patient. The outcome of this course is for the learner to describe how music therapy goals, interventions, and levels of practice can support individuals at the end of life in the context of the unique spiritual and cultural aspects of the patient and his or her family.