Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Music on harp soothes patients at Providence
By
It was just after lunch when Lela Fern of Everett first heard a sweet sound
floating through the hospital halls, beckoning her.
Fern, 65, who is blind and in a wheelchair, was determined to find the origin of the music by following the sound. She wheeled herself from the dining room of the Everett Transitional Care Unit at Providence Everett Medical Center's Pacific Campus and came upon Jeri Howe of Seattle playing soothing music on the harp.
"It sounded like an angel," Fern said. "I thought I was in heaven."
Howe, 48, plays harp twice a week for "Sacred Harmonies at Providence," part of Providence Everett Medical Center's spiritual care program.
"It's prescriptive music for patients who are in distress," said Tim Serban, director of Mission Integration and Spiritual Care at Providence.
Serban describes the program as spiritual
care as opposed to religious care. He emphasized that the harpist is providing
part of that spiritual care, not just playing music for the patient.
"The key to the program is the link with the spiritual care team," Serban said.
Any of the seven chaplains at Providence can request that Howe play for a patient who may benefit from the soothing effects of the music. The chaplains have a sense of who might appreciate it, Serban said.
When the harpist has finished playing the chaplain tends to the patient, helping them process feelings that may have surfaced during that time.
"They help put a complete embrace on the visit," Serban said.
When Serban initially presented the idea to a staff member at Providence, he said he waited for a "what's this all about?"
But the response to the new program was overwhelmingly positive and, armed with a small grant, the Everett hospital joined six other Providence hospitals in the Northwest to provide this kind of music for patients. Serban hopes that the program will eventually incorporate intensive-care patients and babies in neonatal care.
Music visits have "been shown to impact a person's distress or comfort," Serban said.
Benefits to patients have been observed on instruments such as fetal heart monitors. A baby, restless at the beginning of a recent music visit by Howe, was soothed by the music.
"It's very different from music that is entertaining," Serban said.
It's also important that the musician knows the environment of health care, Serban said.
"I think it's very soothing music," Howe said. "It's spiritual."
In 1996, after a two-year program, Howe was certified in music thanatology at The Chalice of Repose Project in Missoula, Mont. Practitioners of music thanatology, an end-of-life patient care program, provide music through voice and harp to those approaching death.
At Providence the program is available through chaplains to any patient wishing to experience comfort from the soothing music.
As well as playing soft, relaxing music, Howe said she makes a conscious effort to let the sacred be present during her music visits with people. She calls it the presence of the third. To Howe, that is a "palpable presence of holiness," she said.
Howe plays twice a week for Providence patients and travels throughout the Puget Sound area providing a restful atmosphere for those in hospice, nursing homes and care facilities.
"It's a privilege," Howe said. "I feel so tremendously blessed."
Reporter Christina Harper: 425-339-3491 or harper@heraldnet.com.