Veterans in the USA have had access to music therapy and music medicine since the late 1940’s after World War II ended.  Thanks largely to the Veterans Hospitals, the modern-day field of music therapy was born.

When World War II was ending, many veterans suffered from not only physical injuries such as gunshot wounds,  broken bones, and amputations but also what was called “shell shock” and “battle fatigue. Remember, the field of music therapy didn’t exist, but many hospitals had music volunteers who came in.

At a hospital in Kansas, some very observant physical therapists, occupational therapists, and nurses observed that some men responded to the music of the “Big Band” groups when nothing else got their attention. This powerful observation led to our modern field of music therapy.

Why was this particular “Big Band Music” so powerful? Well, one of later music therapy’s observations was that the music of our “courting years” has such a powerful effect on our Mind-Body connections. These soldiers were young men who often had a girlfriend or wife waiting at home for them.

The VA Hospital in Louisville, KY has just purchased 180 of our new MP3s and one of the playlists they are getting is the “Music for Memory Care” playlist. When I created this playlist, I included popular music from the 1900s, 1910’s, all the way through to the 1040s, when the Veterans were just returning from WWII. That generation loved “Tip-Toe Through the Tulips,” “By the Light of the Silvery Moon,” and “I’ll Be Loving You, Always.”

I have played these songs on the piano in Senior Centers, nursing homes, and church groups and and I have seen audience members immediately relax and smile and begin to sing along. Especially patients with dementia, or early Alzheimer’s are feeling scared and isolated. Things that were familiar and comforting to them are no longer familiar. Suddenly, they hear music from their youth or courting years, and this is still very familiar and brings back happy memories.

Neurologist and gerontologists who study the brains of the elderly are learning that even after a person’s familiar faces and orienting information are forgotten, the music from their youth and “courting years” are still familiar and a source of great joy and comfort. It’s kind of magical.

In 2015, the VA hospital in Louisville, KY, Robley Rex Medical Center, conducted a clinical research trial on our original pre-loaded, classical playlist headphones for surgery. This study was conducted on Veterans having major abdominal surgery. The researchers discovered a significant reduction in the opioid requirement for the Veterans listening through headphones to the classical playlist.

In this time of an opioid crisis, it is wonderful to know that something as simple as music can make a significant impact on pain perception. Now, hospitals around the world are tapping into this power using both the pre-loaded headphones as well as our new MP3 players.

So, bringing their work up to present day, music therapists are still an integral part of hospitals and music therapists do both group work and individual work. However, it’s 99% live performance. This makes the process very expensive for the hospital.

Surgical Serenity Solutions has curated therapeutic music lists from 5 distinct genres. that has been recorded for specific clinical purposes is now available and VA hospitals are again taking the lead to use our therapeutic music all over the hospitals to reduce anxiety and pain perception.

To get pricing for your hospital on these new MP3 players, got www.surgicalserenitysolutions.com/MP3players.

If you want individual headphones for surgical patients, go to www.surgicalserenitysolutions.com/headphones.