Clinical issues: Music therapy in an adult cancer inpatient treatment setting

Abstract

The adult oncology inpatient music therapy program at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, which is Australia's only hospital solely dedicated to cancer treatment, research and care, is described. Patients' treatment requirements and often changing conditions compel music therapists to be flexible in their approach, offering both preplanned treatment sessions and spontaneous sessions in open ward contexts. Patients and families who wish to engage in music therapy choose from various music therapy methods, including live song choice, music imagery and relaxation, therapeutic music lessons, and improvisation. Complex variables inevitable in such human relationship therapies necessitate that, alongsi..