Literature Review

All posts tagged with “General News | Complementary Services (inc. Music Therapy).”



Musician mom, 31, enters hospice in final days, writes song for young son: 'My art is all I have to leave behind'

01/26/24 at 04:00 AM

Mom enters hospice in final days of cancer and releases viral song for 7-year-old sonPeople, by Jordan Greene; 1/25/24Cat Janis shared her final wish – for her song 'Dance You Outta My Head' which she wrote for her 7-year-old son — to go viral. 

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The nurse who helps dying patients write poetry

01/26/24 at 04:00 AM

The nurse who helps dying patients write poetryThe Telegraph (UK News), by Flora Bowen; 1/25/24What will happen to me after I die? Will my family cope? How will I be remembered? These are familiar questions for Rekha Vijayshankar. As a palliative care nurse who is now Marie Curie’s deputy head of quality and clinical governance, she has helped thousands of patients to explore their feelings towards such themes through writing poetry and journal entries together.

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Visiting Nurses Foundation awards $130,000 to Assured Hospice for comfort therapies

01/22/24 at 04:04 AM

Visiting Nurses Foundation awards $130,000 to Assured Hospice for comfort therapiesThe Chronicle; 1/19/24The Visiting Nurses Foundation has awarded Assured Hospice $130,000 as part of a continued partnership to provide therapies for end-of-life patients. The money supports comfort therapies, which include acupuncture and acupressure, animal-assisted therapy, guided imagery, healing touch, therapeutic touch, reiki, music and sound therapy and massages, which are integrated to enhance existing treatment plans.

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Man with cancer once wanted assisted suicide, but was glad he chose natural death instead

01/17/24 at 04:00 AM

Man with cancer once wanted assisted suicide, but was glad he chose natural death insteadLive Action, by Cassy Fiano-Chesser; 1/15/24“In our last moments, when he was awake, I sat on his bed and sang to him — Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. He had watched her sing it at the Isle of Wight pop festival and it was a magical memory he had relived with us.

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Bringing peace and joy: Evensong performs familiar music for hospice patients

01/10/24 at 04:00 AM

Bringing peace and joy: Evensong performs familiar music for hospice patientsThe Ellsworth American, by Jess Cummings; 1/8/24Evensong, a group of choral singers operating under the Hospice Volunteers of Hancock County, has spent the last 15 years singing for individuals nearing the final moments of their lives. The group specializes in hospice and palliative care, traveling upon request all over Hancock County to sing at the bedsides and homes of patients in need. ... “Music is a huge thing,” [musical director] Cookie Horner says. “It goes to a different part of your brain than everything else…we’ve seen that firsthand.” Evensong’s repertoire includes music like spiritual and secular hymns, familiar folk songs and even popular special requests.

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The Corvallis group singing by the bedsides of the dying and grieving

12/25/23 at 04:00 AM

The Corvallis group singing by the bedsides of the dying and grievingCorvallis (OR) Gazette-Times, 12/23/23Nearing the end of a long career as an educator at Corvallis’ Garfield Elementary, Susan Breckenridge began searching for post-retirement activities that she could do with others and still be in service to her community. Around this time, a friend who played the harp for a hospice organization told her about the Threshold Choir. Breckenridge had never heard about it before, but that evening she went online to read about the group. The volunteers sing at the bedsides of the dying and grieving, to be a source of comfort. “I was like, that’s it! That’s what I’ve been looking for: something that I can be in service to others and use my singing voice,” Breckenridge said on a Zoom call. Now-retired physician David Grube said he’d first learned about the choir while attending a “compassion and choices” lecture in Portland.

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