A Place of Less Distress

June 25, 2016

Story and Photos by Alex Furuya

​A music-thanatologist is someone who plays music to help someone as they are dying. Their work has shown to help alleviate pain and decrease tension. While this important job has many benefits, there are only 63 certified music-thanatologists in the world due to the unique challenges of producing music-thanatologists. One practitioner is attempting to fix this.

Soft music can be heard coming from one of the rooms at JourneyCare, a hospice in Glenview, IL. The music is quiet and delicate, comforting and caring. Someone is strumming the harp in this room, and there is a family surrounding a patient on the bed. As the patient's breaths become more and more irregular, the musician adjusts the tempo of his music to the patient's breathing rhythm.

​Tony Pederson is a certified Music-Thanatologist at JourneyCare, formerly known as the Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter. Pederson is also currently the president of Music Thanatology Association International. His job is to help ease the pain of patients who are at the end of their lives by creating music tailored to the patient’s needs. Although his job has a high demand from both patients and medical practitioners, there are only about 100 trained music thanatologist in the world. This is due to low priority in end of health care and the lack of structural support for the music-thanatology industry.

​Pederson started training as a music-thanatologist since 1994 and has since worked non-stop. As a music-thanatologist, the father of two leads a busy life, often having to travel from nursing homes to hospices to see about three people each day.

While playing music might seem simple, Pederson needs to use his knowledge of physiology and the human body in order to recognize what the patient is experiencing.

"My job then is if I'm going to connect with this person without inflicting any distress on them, I need to meet them where they're at."

–Tony Pederson

"There's this really important interplay between what I see happening and what I understand about the body system processes that are working," says Pederson.

According to him, who has a background in social work and psychology, he keeps in mind how the disease is progressing, what medications are being used and how the family is supporting the patient.

Mindful the patient's experience, Pederson's music is created at the spot and is tailored for the patient.

​"There's not a recipe," he says. "My job is to connect with this person without inflicting any distress on them, I need to meet them where they're at."

​While Pederson deals with those who are dying, he finds that his job is necessary in order to respect the person and to help alleviate their pain.

"We can't fix everything, but even making something like that a little better can make a world of difference."

–Tony Pederson

According to him, "There is a satisfaction in finding someone who is in distress and finding a path that maybe doesn't remove all the distress but moves everything to a place of less distress.”

“We can't fix everything,” he says. “But even making something like that a little better can make a world of difference."

Pederson's job also includes helping families cope with death and giving them additional resources and support, especially for those who are experiencing death for the first time.

"That thing that has gone missing from that is the old way of doing medicine, which is the one-on-one approach."

–Tony Pederson

While he and the other staff at JourneyCare recognize the importance of his work, there are very few trained music-thanatologists in the world. In fact, according to Pederson, there is high demand; yet, there is a shortage in supply. ​This problem is rooted in the challenges of producing music-thanatologists. The first challenge is that the field is too small. Because most of the practitioners are working full time, they do not have time to teach.

“As soon as I start teaching then I'm not providing services to patients nearly as much,” said Pederson. It takes about two to three years to complete music-thanatology teaching.

​According to Pederson, the music-thanatology field is too small and has not reached critical mass to be sustainable. This might be due to the fact that the people who become music-thanatology often do it as a second career. Most begin training in their mid-fifties and quickly retire. Pederson is an exception, having started training in his twenties.

Pederson also notes how the healthcare system today has affected music-thanatology, or hospice work more generally.

“I'm always really fascinated with what happens at the end of life because in our society, that's been the thing that healthcare doesn't do well,” says Pederson. “We're really great at MRI machines and heart and lung transplants and these big ticket approaches to medicine. That thing that has gone missing from that is the old way of doing medicine, which is the one-on-one approach.”

According to him, the healthcare system has shifted its focus towards extending life, and has lost focus on what to do with people who are dying.
Because of this, young adults who are starting their careers do not realize the importance of end of life care, which in turn creates a shortage of music-thanatologists. Currently there are only two schools in America, both in Oregon, that train students to become music-thanatology.

"More schooling needs to happen,” says Pederson. “I can see three to five patients on a given day. If I train ten students and they're all seeing three to five patients a day, like suddenly that starts to matter. There'll be that many times more music-thanatologists out there seeing all those other people I couldn't get to."
​

"Saving someone’s life is crazy, super important, but honoring the life that is not going to be saved is no less important."

–Tony Pederson

​Although there are many challenges, Pederson is optimistic about the future of music-thanatology, just because of how important and necessary it is.
“Figuring out what fits for the person best–that approach is the point of good hospice care,” said Pederson. “It's what gets me up and going everyday. That's really the role of music-thanatology, just to remind people about some of the other things that are important. Saving someone’s life is crazy, super important, but honoring the life that is not going to be saved is no less important.”