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Dow High School students start music therapy program

Flickr user Anna Muncey
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A new partnership between MidMichigan Medical Center and Dow High School music students has launched in Midland.

The new Music Care Program aims to promote positive healing and health by featuring live local musicians at the Midland hospital.

Neil Janwani is a sophomore at Dow High School and co-founder of the group. He said he sees how people are deeply affected by the music when he performs and the project evolved from those observations.

“Starting this program is really just a way for students to use their musical talents to better the hospital environment. Hospital environments can be very stressful at times. So, a clam piano piece would really bring those stress levels down”.

 

Ayla Khan is a Dow High freshman and the other founder of the Music Care Program. She said they looked at a study which compared patients treated with music therapy and patients treated with standard care.

“The patients who were in the music group they had 30 percent decreased anxiety than the standard care patients and also the patients from the music group needed only three doses of sedative medication while the standard group patients needed five”.

Janwani and Khan said if the music is well received by the community, the group will try to make weekly appearances at the hospital in the future.