Music Therapy for children in hospital care: A stress and coping framework for practice

Abstract

<p>The experience of illness and/or injury and subsequent hospitalization is inevitably stressful. A range of theoretical perspectives inform and support therapeutic interventions with children and their families to manage stress following hospitalization. Crisis theory (Schaeffer & Moos, 1998) explains unexpected stress-inducing events as propelling individuals into turbulent and overwhelming cognitive and emotional experiences that challenge the resources available for maintaining equilibrium, or what is known as "coping." For children and their families, coping with their experiences of illness and/or injury leading to hospitalization can be additionally challenged by the developmental needs of the child. Offering support requires attention to children's perception of events, including attending to their comprehension of, and participation in, ongoing medical treatment.</p>