Clinical Services: Infants, Children & Teens

• Asthma Initiative Program • Developmental Pediatrics • Inpatient Pediatrics • HIV & AIDS Services • Music & Health Clinic • NICU

Inpatient Pediatrics

About Inpatient Pediatrics
The inpatient pediatric department at Beth Israel Medical Center provides cutting-edge services ranging from acute medical care in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, to highest quality Inpatient Unit services, to specialty services through the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. Each year, approximately 2,000 children and adolescents are treated on these units, with treatment areas including endocrinology, critical care medicine, surgery, pulmonology, primary care, adolescent medicine and many others.

About Music Therapy for Inpatient Pediatrics
The Louis and Lucille Armstrong Music Therapy Program at Beth Israel shares in upholding the mission of the inpatient pediatric department to improve the health of children and adolescents through outstanding clinical care delivered in a sensitive and caring fashion, while specifically providing state-of-the-art care to complement medical treatment.

Our clinical services include:

• Daily music psychotherapy sessions on the inpatient pediatric unit, either at the bedside or in our music therapy studio
• Interactive/collaborative play for patients, families and staff through community jams. Community music sharing can offer opportunities for participants to experience others in new roles—e.g., medical team as non-threatening, children as decision-makers, etc., as well as create a familiar, "home" feel in an otherwise medical environment
• Pain Management: procedural music therapy using live music with children undergoing blood-draws, needle sticks, EEGs, VCUG's, biopsies, endoscopies, pre-/post-operative pain and anxiety, and more. Patients use drumming for release/entrainment, or relaxation/meditation with live music to ease the pain experience.
• The Asthma Initiative Program, which explores the effects of music therapy and wind playing on the breathing and quality of life of children and teens with asthma
• Creating bonding experiences for parents of newborns through use of womb sounds (placenta sounds and heart rhythms) as well as parent made lullaby tapes for babies

Clinical services provided by specialist-level music therapists are based in a long history of scientific research. Studies conducted through the Louis and Lucille Armstrong Pediatric Program include:

• The Effect on EMT (Environmental Music Therapy) in the NICU
• The Use of Live music in the NICU: Heather on Earth Multi-Site Study
• Musical Sedation versus Pharmacologic Sedation for infants and toddlers undergoing medical testing
• The Effects of Music Therapy during Painful Procedures
• The Use of Music and Wind Playing on the Quality of Life for Children and Teens with Asthma AIP – Asthma Initiative Program – includes children and teens 7 – 18 years old. Call our hotline to enroll: (212) 420-3592.

Our program maintains the highest quality musical instruments from around the world, and our team is trained in multi-cultural music and a variety of music therapy techniques including: guided visualization, African drumming techniques, song writing, and song sensitation, with background training in piano, guitar, string and wind playing, and voice.

Related Research and Articles
For articles from peer-reviewed journals, research studies and authoritative literature, please see the bibliographies in the Suggested Reading section. Additional information is available through Websites listed on the Related Links page.  

For Questions and Further Information
For questions and further information about music therapy or referrals for yourself, your loved ones or your patients, please call (212) 420-2704 or email info@musicandmedicine.org.