Music Heals & Comforts & Supports
"I can't believe how much it helps and soothes," exclaimed one Samaritan Place resident, and we here at Samaritan couldn't agree more ! Music Therapy at Samaritan Place is funded only through donations, so we're inviting you to join with us in raising $150 000.
Our audacious goal is to fundraise enough to support a 3-year position for our current Music Therapist, Alanna, and to provide our home with a PA system whereby we can offer music and meaningful communications for all residents.
Music therapy is evidence-based and research-informed. Music therapists set resident-specific goals and follow treatment plans. Music is the modality of a meaningful, therapeutic relationship and music is "used as a means to substantial, and often permanent, non-musical treatment outcomes." Furthermore, a 2021 study has shown that "music can still quicken and communicate despite the hardest challenges; can continue to carry a message of hope, consolation, joy...despite everything." (Click here to read the full study.)
Will you join us in keeping the music going? Please click the "Keep the Music Going" button to donate online.
*As we are a charitable organization, all donations to Samaritan Place will be issued tax receipts.
Our audacious goal is to fundraise enough to support a 3-year position for our current Music Therapist, Alanna, and to provide our home with a PA system whereby we can offer music and meaningful communications for all residents.
Music therapy is evidence-based and research-informed. Music therapists set resident-specific goals and follow treatment plans. Music is the modality of a meaningful, therapeutic relationship and music is "used as a means to substantial, and often permanent, non-musical treatment outcomes." Furthermore, a 2021 study has shown that "music can still quicken and communicate despite the hardest challenges; can continue to carry a message of hope, consolation, joy...despite everything." (Click here to read the full study.)
Will you join us in keeping the music going? Please click the "Keep the Music Going" button to donate online.
*As we are a charitable organization, all donations to Samaritan Place will be issued tax receipts.
If you'd like to write a cheque, please make the cheque payable to Samaritan Place and put in the memo line Don't Stop the Music Fundraiser . Please mail or drop your cheque off at the below address.
Samaritan Place
375 Cornish Road
Saskatoon, SK S7T 0P3
Is you have any questions, please contact Carmen, our Director of Spiritual Care & Mission, here. She welcomes your inquiries.
Samaritan Place
375 Cornish Road
Saskatoon, SK S7T 0P3
Is you have any questions, please contact Carmen, our Director of Spiritual Care & Mission, here. She welcomes your inquiries.
Alanna Barr, BMT
Resident Experience with Music Therapy (From the Music Therapist’s point-of-view):
I am travelling through the hallways, guitar on my back when I hear the cries from someone’s room- “help me!”. It is a resident I have been seeing weekly for a few months. As I enter into the room and the resident recognizes it is me, I notice a palpable shift in this resident’s distressed state. I pull out my guitar and start playing light finger-picking music. As I am playing, I notice the resident is beginning to calm-almost as if they are sinking into and entering into the musical experience with me. As I finish my first song, the resident shares with me that they can’t believe how fast the music has helped their distressed state begin to deescalate and now they feel like they are “almost in heaven”. They tell me they “cannot believe how much it helps and soothes” and states “The music therapist is here and now I will settle down in no time”. I continue to play and sing resident’s preferred music, which the resident and I discussed and established in our first few sessions together. I encourage them to close their eyes and focus in on my voice and the sounds of my guitar. I play quiet and gentle versions of some of their favourite songs, including “What a Wonderful World”, and “The Rose”. I end our session singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, and for the first time, the resident sang along with me. It was as if this was a song of hope for the resident, a song of strength, a song of release. As our time ended, the resident shared with me how when they have moments of pain or distress they think of Monday music – “I now have something to cling to”.
These special moments are such strong evidence of why music therapy is an essential service. Through music therapy, this resident has found space for relaxation and peace. They have found a space of comfort and trust to let go. They find hope.
I am travelling through the hallways, guitar on my back when I hear the cries from someone’s room- “help me!”. It is a resident I have been seeing weekly for a few months. As I enter into the room and the resident recognizes it is me, I notice a palpable shift in this resident’s distressed state. I pull out my guitar and start playing light finger-picking music. As I am playing, I notice the resident is beginning to calm-almost as if they are sinking into and entering into the musical experience with me. As I finish my first song, the resident shares with me that they can’t believe how fast the music has helped their distressed state begin to deescalate and now they feel like they are “almost in heaven”. They tell me they “cannot believe how much it helps and soothes” and states “The music therapist is here and now I will settle down in no time”. I continue to play and sing resident’s preferred music, which the resident and I discussed and established in our first few sessions together. I encourage them to close their eyes and focus in on my voice and the sounds of my guitar. I play quiet and gentle versions of some of their favourite songs, including “What a Wonderful World”, and “The Rose”. I end our session singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, and for the first time, the resident sang along with me. It was as if this was a song of hope for the resident, a song of strength, a song of release. As our time ended, the resident shared with me how when they have moments of pain or distress they think of Monday music – “I now have something to cling to”.
These special moments are such strong evidence of why music therapy is an essential service. Through music therapy, this resident has found space for relaxation and peace. They have found a space of comfort and trust to let go. They find hope.
If you'd like to learn more about Music Therapy, please check out the below links.
Geriatrics - Music Therapy Association of BC
Music Therapy In Alzheimer and Dementia Care
Who Benefits from Music Therapy?
Geriatrics - Music Therapy Association of BC
Music Therapy In Alzheimer and Dementia Care
Who Benefits from Music Therapy?
