Music as therapy
The Hospital del Mar studies the benefits of music therapy in patients admitted to the ICU.
To test how music as a therapy applied to patients admitted to the ICU helps their evolution is the aim of the study that has just been launched by the Intensive Care Department of the Hospital del Mar in collaboration with the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute.
The ICU of the Hospital de Mar has a long history of applying music therapy to its patients. An experience that was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced a large part of the humanitarian projects in this area to stop. Now it has been resumed, thanks to the philanthropy of the Manuel Lao Foundation and the collaboration of the Friends of the Hospital de Mar Foundation, which have made it possible to recover the initiative with music therapists linked to Huella Sonora Music Therapy company. The research project is already underway, and the first results are expected within six months.
“The objective of the humanitarian programmes is that the patient evolves more quickly in his or her recovery process, is discharged earlier and has fewer side-effects,” explains Dr Joan Ramon Masclans, from the Intensive Care Medicine Department at Hospital de Mar.
These actions also have an effect on families, reducing their anxiety levels, and also on healthcare staff, who have been hit hard by the pandemic. In this sense, Esther Lao, Executive Trustee of the Manuel Lao Foundation, assures that “at the Manuel Lao Foundation we feel committed to the humanisation of people’s health care, especially at such a critical time as their stay in the ICU”.
Music therapy is based on applying a musical programme adapted to each patient individually to respond to their situation, evolution and response capacity. Its aim is to help their evolution, reduce stress levels and facilitate their interaction with their environment.
