Some of Your Favorite Songs Are Being Used to Treat Patients in American Mental Institutions
Everybody loves Pharrell's "Happy," especially the psychiatric patients at St. Elizabeth's Hospital.
Ryan Carroll, one of the facility's music therapists, told PolicyMic it's one of the most popular songs in his hospital community, which includes schizophrenics, the criminally insane and individuals with mood, anxiety and personality disorders. They don't listen to it like most of the song's fans, though. Carroll uses the song in his sessions to frame discussions around the nature of happiness. Few songs prompt such obvious and direct discussions, but Carroll has found that the song increases patients' insight into their mental states. When you've forgotten what it feels like to be happy, hearing someone tell you what it means to them is a huge help.
People outside of mental institutions listen to music to control their moods all the time.Computer applications tailor music selection and discovery tools to your mood, turning songs into medication. That's because, for patients and healthy individuals alike, music is a tool to hear yourself. Nowhere is that clearer than inside the walls of our nation's mental health institutions.
Some hospitals have full-time staff just to manage the music selection and programs. Music is a fundamental feature of "normal" life and can help build patients' self-confidence and trust in the hospital system and its staff — something that otherwise can be seen as part of a scary system. Music helps patients feel more self-confident and less isolated — it offers them a sense of control over their minds and lives. Research has even shown that music can reduce the frequency of auditory hallucinations for some schizophrenics...
Read the full article at PolicyMic
http://www.policymic.com/articles/89449/the-powerful-way-high-security-mental-institutions-use-music-to-cure-patients
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