Exit Music: The Experience of Music Therapy within Medical Assistance in Dying

SarahRose Black; Lee Bartel; Gary Rodin

doi:10.3390/healthcare8030331

Exit Music: The Experience of Music Therapy within Medical Assistance in Dying

Healthcare (Basel). 2020 Sep 10;8(3):331. doi: 10.3390/healthcare8030331.

Authors

SarahRose Black^{1

2}, Lee Bartel³, Gary Rodin^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5G2M9, Canada.
² Kensington Hospice, Kensington Health, Toronto, ON M5S2L1, Canada.
³ Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S2C5, Canada.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S1A8, Canada.

Abstract

Since the 2015 Canadian legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD), many Canadian music therapists have become involved in the care of those requesting this procedure. This qualitative study, the first of its kind, examines the experience of music therapy within MAiD, exploring lived experience from three perspectives: the patient, their primary caregiver, and the music therapist/researcher. Overall thematic findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of ten MAiD cases demonstrate therapeutically beneficial outcomes in terms of quality of life, symptom management, and life review. Further research is merited to continue an exploration of the role of music therapy in the context of assisted dying.

Keywords: MAiD; assisted dying; end of life; music therapy; palliative care; phenomenology; qualitative.