Music has taken on a new, healing role at Whidbey General Hospital.

In a pilot program, music therapy services will be offered to patients being served by the Medical Ambulatory Care clinic and home health care and hospice programs.

“We’re adding complementary disciplines in the hospital’s goal to provide excellence in patient care,” said Judy Moore, director of home and community services division at WGH. “Music is one of the things we’re incorporating into our services as a way to enhance our core medical care.” Music helps relax people, Moore said, which in turn supports recovery and can even help with pain management and reduce the amount of medication being given.

Music can also serve as a way for a family to reminisce together and provide a means to interact with ill family members more personally.

Barbara Dunn, a licensed medical social worker and board certified music therapist from South Whidbey, will direct the program and facilitate some of the therapy services herself.

Dunn has worked for 20 years providing music therapy for a variety of clients with illnesses ranging from cancer or AIDS to Alzheimer’s and autism, “from the very young to the young at heart,” she said.

In 1999, she received the Professional Practice award from the American Music Therapy Association. She is also a professional musician and performs solo and with her band “Amaranth.”

The WGH program is now looking for musicians in the Whidbey community to volunteer their services, either to patients in the hospital or those being seen by Home Health and Hospice.

In the home, they would follow up on a music therapy plan established by the therapist.

Moore told the story of a man who had suffered a severe stroke and for whom music has played a critical role in the recovery process. The man was unable to speak, but through music therapy has become able to sing an entire song, speeding his healing in a pleasurable way, Moore said.

By playing a modified guitar, he was also able to resume some use of his arm and increase range of motion.

Musicians might also play to bring comfort to a hospice patient or to assist someone in pain. And they are invited to volunteer to perform live in patient care areas around the hospital.

“Initially the program will help just a few patients, but as we gain more volunteers we’ll be able to expand the number of patients we can work with,” Moore said.

“People have been very responsive to music as a form of therapy, probably because most people have an informal appreciation of music as a way to relax.”

Musicians who are interested in volunteering should call Sally Fox, volunteer coordinator, at (360) 321-7656 Ext. 3246. For general questions about the program, call Dunn at (360) 321-6659.

The hospital is also expanding on the library of recorded music available to patients while they are in the hospital. People who have CDs they would like to donate can drop them off at the volunteer desk inside the main lobby of the hospital.

The music therapy program is being funded through January at its onset. During this time the hospital is investigating reimbursement by insurance companies as well as exploring some grants to pay for it after January.