Meet Lindsey Aherne, Music Therapist, CHI at Temple Street
Lindsey Aherne is a Music Therapist and works across Neurosurgery and Palliative care in CHI at Temple Street. We spoke to Lindsey to find out about her role and the impact that funding by supporters of Children’s Health Foundation has had on her role for the benefit of patients and their families who attend the hospital.
What is Music Therapy?
Music therapy is the clinical and evidenced based use of music to reach health goals. There is a lot of research and evidence that supports the role of Music Therapy in acute paediatric care. We are primarily concerned with the emotional needs of the child and offer support to children and their families during their hospital stay. We are patient and family centred-children and their families are at the heart of our work. I work as part of a large multidisciplinary team and we combine our knowledge and skills to best support children throughout their hospital stay. As a Music therapist, I often work with other team members such as physiotherapy and speech and language therapy to support patient goals. We also help children cope with their stay by offering positive experiences through Music Therapy interventions. Music therapy sessions can provide opportunities for choice, control, and encourage participation in a fun, safe and structured environment. We offer procedural support, facilitate relaxation and distraction from pain.
What do you love about your job?
I have always worked with children throughout my career, and I am immensely proud to work at CHI at Temple Street. I find being a Music therapist working across Neurosurgery and Palliative care very rewarding. We have an amazing, dedicated team of people here. I get to combine my love of music and use my skills and training as a Music Therapist to support children and families throughout their stay. Children may sometimes be anxious and afraid upon admission and music can be the one thing that makes a child smile, eases anxiety and brings comfort to the child and their families. We all relate to music in some way and that is the beauty of it. Music is familiar, motivational, invites active participation, can facilitate relaxation, ease anxiety, lower heart rates, is great for mood, encourages emotional expression, brings comfort, creates memories and can improve quality of life. We draw on all these qualities of music in our work. Every Music Therapy session is person-centred, individualized and tailored to suit the needs and goals of the patients and families.
How has funding that has been generously made possible by supporters of Children’s Health Foundation helped you?
The Music Therapy team are incredibly grateful for the generosity of the Foundation’s supporters. So many children have benefited and continue to benefit from funding from the Children’s Health Foundation. It has allowed us to purchase new equipment and musical instruments as well as supported multiple different Music Therapy projects. We recently had the Music Therapy room renovated with specialist sensory equipment. This was funded through the foundation and has made such a difference to every patient who accesses our service.
We are also currently developing a ‘Heartbeats’ project in conjunction with the palliative care team. This is a really special project which uses a digital stethoscope to capture the patient’s heartbeat.
The sound of the heartbeat is then added to a favourite chosen song. This project originated in the United States of America and we are looking forward to sharing more details on this very soon.
That must be so rewarding?
It is very rewarding. The Music Therapy department are delighted to be developing the Heart Beats project. As I mentioned it is a very special project and we would not be able to do this without the support of the Foundation and their generous supporters so thank you very much.
How your support makes an impact:
The help and kindness of wonderful supporters like you across Ireland and beyond makes it it possible for Music Therapists like Lindsey to bring the joy and benefits of music to young patients in Children’s Health Ireland at Temple Street and Crumlin.
Read more about Music Therapy here:
