|
|
|
Shawna has been working with Harps for Hearts as a therapeutic harp practitioner since 2002. On any given Wednesday or Thursday, she’ll be in ICU, labor and delivery, oncology, or pre-op, pediatrics and more. Harp music, in clinical and hospice settings alike, has been the subject of new and promising research.
*Some of the most common results of studies in the last 30 years show that music, when appropriately applied, has the ability to:
-
Regulate blood pressure, heart rate, and respirations
-
Soothe anxiety, calm agitation and induce restful sleep
-
Increase appetite and weight gain in babies, elders, and patients with Alzheimer's
-
Retrieve pleasant memories, decrease wandering, and subdue agitation, and improve mood for persons with dementia, esp. Alzheimer's type
-
Lower the level of stress hormones, such as cortisol, in the blood
-
Raise the level of immune antibodies, such as IgA, in the blood
-
Bring patients out of coma states
-
Put patients into pre-anesthesia sleep states prior to surgery (at least one Texas hospital study has shown live harp music requires the use of up to 50% less anaethestic intra-operatively and as much as 60% less pain medication 24 hours post-operatively).
A randomized, controlled crossover clinical trial is taking place at Franciscan Skemp Medical Center in LaCrosse, WI, to assess the effect of therapeutic vibrations from harp music versus routine care on quality of life for patients in the hospital setting. There will be a component study assessing these effects upon dementia patients particularly, and upon dying patients.
Hospitals offering harp therapy include Stanford, Dartmouth, Amherst, Loyola, Rochester, City of Hope, the Mayo Clinic, Cedars Sinai, Kaiser Permanente and many, many more.
To begin a harp program at your hospital, please email me at: shawnaselline@yahoo.com.
. |
