The project in summary
Music-therapy sessions for children with congenital heart diseases and chronically ill hospitalized at the Hôpital des Enfants des HUG (Genève).
The project in detail
Successfully piloted in 2019-2022, inside six Paediatric Wards of the Hôpital des Enfants des HUG (Genève), thanks to the unique support of AMG, in 2023, the practice of music-therapy significantly contributed to improving the psychophysical well-being of young hospitalized patients. Moreover, the results of the monitoring and impact evaluation processes confirm that music-therapy is considered by the medical and nursing staff of the different wards where the music therapist intervened, as an indispensable complementary practice to the conventional hospital care and medical treatments.
More specifically, the project aims to:
- humanize the hospital experience and allow young patients to build a space of autonomy and freedom, from where to recover their identity as active subjects;
- reactivate their creative abilities and interpersonal ties to reduce the feeling of isolation and loneliness, induced by medical treatments, and mitigate their feeling of powerlessness in the face of illness;
- improve the doctor-patient relationship through a sensory stimulation that, through play, enhance the externalization of feelings, sensations, and emotions;
- improve the medical work environment, and reduce the stress of doctors, paramedics, and nurses.
Beneficiaries (2023)
- 149 children (4 weeks-14 years ages), in long-term care and suffering from serious and/or degenerative pathologies;
- 88 children, with congenital heart diseases or suffering from cardiovascular diseases, aged 10 months-17 years, primarily coming from Africa and participating to the program of the association Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, based in Paris;
- 27 preterm babies, in the Neonatal Care Unit;
- 12 social hospitalizations (13 months-13 years ages) and 2 patients (7-8 years ages) from the Programme Sentinelle (Noma);
- 48 parents in the Neonatal Care Unit.
Between February-December 2023, with Alta Mane support, the following activities have been implemented:
- 663 individual music-therapy sessions (for a total of 489h and 47 minutes) offered throughout the hospitalization and tailored to the needs, abilities, and socio-cultural specificities of 278 young patients (4 weeks-17 years ages), of which 27 preterm babies and 88 young patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases participating to the Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque The music-therapy sessions have indirectly reached 65-70% of the nursing staff in the Intensive Care Unit, as well as 90% of the parents in the Neonatal Care Unit;
- in collaboration with the medical and nursing staff, the launch of the preparatory phase of a research study in the Neonatal Care Unit of HUG (identification of research axes and operational modalities);
- refinement of the linguistic glossary and audio recording in 6 languages.
In 2024, the music therapist foresees to continue offering music-therapy sessions inside the six Paediatric Wards, intensifying their reach and frequency inside the Neonatal Care Unit.
