Featured Music Therapy Program for FEBRUARY

This month's featured programs are:

North Carolina Children's Hospital.
and
Tar Heel Music Therapy.

Music Therapy has been an active part of the Department of Recreational Therapy and Child Life since July, 2006. The initial funding was provided by the non-profit organization, Rock Against Cancer. Through RAC, the music therapy program received funding to hire Elizabeth Fawcett, MT-BC as a temporary, part-time employee of the UNC Hospital System. In October, 2008, UNC Hospitals stepped up and now provides permanent part-time funding for Fawcett.

Fawcett provides music therapy services to pediatric patients that are the most in need. Patients with cancer, cystic fibrosis, trauma victims, and burn patients are the primary focus of her caseload. Music therapy groups are held three times a week for appropriate patients with help from volunteers from the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina. Group and individual sessions utilize songwriting, instrument playing, musical games and activities for physical functioning, music lessons, and music and art activities to name a few.

In order to fill the rest of her workweek, Fawcett started Tar Heel Music Therapy out of her home in February of 2006. THMT is still a home based company which provides music therapy services to assisted living, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers in Burlington, Mebane, Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Cary, NC. THMT provides services in group settings as well as in-room individual settings. In these facilities, the focus of music therapy interventions includes reminiscence, physical functioning and endurance, socialization, emotional expression, and quality of life. Being the sole-proprietor of THMT allows Fawcett to maintain all the aspects of the business from marketing and billing to the actual hands-on therapy, all of which she enjoys.

When thinking about the future of her practice, Fawcett anticipates building the music therapy program at N.C. Children’s Hospital to include more hours and an internship and growing THMT through the hiring of fun, energetic, and passionate Board Certified Music Therapists.

You can read more about Tar Heel Music Therapy on its website, www.TarHeelMusicTherapy.com and the Department of Recreational Therapy and Child Life at their website, www.unchealthcare.org/site/rectherapy/play_facilities.