Music Therapy During a Global Pandemic...

This is my first post in over a year. I don't feel like I need to explain that TOO much...seeing as 2020 has proved to be a challenging year in many ways. I thought I would just share a few highlights from my professional world and how I have been navigating amidst a global pandemic.

*cries*

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In March when the pandemic began to hit the Midwest, the hospital and Kansas City completely shut down. People were being deemed "essential" and "non-essential." And frontline healthcare workers were both being called heroes...and also being laid off. It was confusing, stressful, and complete chaos. I know that myself and many of my colleagues and friends were worried about how Music Therapy would be categorized. I fell in a kind of in-between category here at Truman, deemed "essential" and not furloughed, but felt pretty "non-essential" in that I was not allowed to enter patient rooms and therefore could not perform my job. I was sent home while my supervisor and her director came up with a game plan for me. I was reassigned to our labor pool for a few days, where I assisted with sanitizing high-touch surfaces in the hospital. I actually had so much fun these few days...I explored every nook and cranny of the hospital and rode the elevators wiping down buttons. It was very mundane, but also somehow relaxing? I was just happy to still be employed.

Eventually I was reassigned to my old stomping ground in Long Term Care. I was reunited with my pals in the Recreation/Music Therapy Department...where we were faced with a completely bananas challenge: Provide rec/music therapy for all 100+ residents that were now being isolated to their rooms...but somehow socially distance...where the mask despite all of the hard-of-hearing folks...groups of people are not allowed so do 100 times the work by visiting every single resident multiple times per week. We started to get into the swing of things, and soon were using creativity to make connections with residents and do our best to socialize with them. This included recording horribly cheesy music trivia videos that were broadcast into each residents' room on their personal television. We provided packets of word searches, did doorway individual music therapy, gave out snacks and treats, helped residents make facetime calls to family, and played hallway games. I think I was reassigned for about 2 1/2 months total before I was finally allowed to return to my position at the hospital. 

I had some new limits in place...obviously not seeing any COVID + patients, wearing a Level 3 mask when visiting patients, no instruments for patients to play, and no entering any isolation rooms to preserve PPE. All of these are still in place today...but despite all of that, I have been able to build back my caseload and have slowly found myself busy again. I also worked with Public Relations to create several videos to provide perhaps a bit of comfort to our exhausted staff- I had a lot of fun with some song rewrites.

I am one of the few area music therapists that is allowed to host a practicum student this semester. Many of the Kansas City locations are virtual only, or no students period. I currently have one practicum student who attends sessions with me on Monday afternoons. I also have had several students shadow me- including graduate MT equivalency students enrolled in a Medical Music Therapy course (jealous...that wasn't in the curriculum when I attended UMKC). This past week I even had a Resident Doctor complete an elective course with me. 

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My hospice PRN job has also been a challenge. I believe I went about four months without putting in any hours. Most nursing home facilities were not allowing ANY outside visitors. Can you imagine your loved one passing away, alone, in a facility where even hospice isn't allowed to visit? In the hospice world, music therapy was pretty much considered "non-essential," and I respected that. I wanted to keep our vulnerable patients and their caregivers safe. I began to slowly integrate back into the hospice world by providing music for several outdoor and socially distanced memorial services. Currently I am visiting home hospice patients and using extreme caution. I am so happy to be back to providing this meaningful experience for patients and families.

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Needless to say, I am feeling about as burnt out as everyone else these days. Some things I have started to do for my own well-being and self care:

• Restarted 1:1 therapy telehealth sessions. I think I like therapy over the phone better than in person. I don't have to drive and try to park in the shitty parking lot that is always full. I can sit in my office over lunch and doodle away. Somehow I can concentrate better and really bullet-point my goals and issues. Also I am not cancelling out of anxiety (so silly, but if ya know ya know) and instead just feel comforted that I don't have to GO ANYWHERE. It is truly magical.
• Began writing in a therapy journal...I literally journal during therapy sessions. Then process on my own afterward, come up with topics for the next session, and write entries in between to hold myself accountable. My therapist recommended this and it is hands-down the smartest thing I have done in a long time.
• I play fetch with my dogs everyday after work. It's our routine now- June waits by the back door for me to slip on some comfy shoes and out we go! Gracie honestly just eats grass and rolls around...but June is a fetching machine. It really helps me transition from work to home.
• Audiobooks in the car. FAVES: Untamed, Educated, Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) In Song
• Reading for pleasure. So much reading. Dare I say that I annihilated my 2020 reading goal by surpassing 35 books in September?! My new nightly ritual that really helps me wind down. FAVES: Daisy Jones & The Six, Unfollow, I'm Still Here, The Guest List, The Lying Game, The Giver of Stars, American Dirt, The Storyteller
• Baking bread. Yeah yeah...I know...everyone is doing it right now. Technically I was baking my own bread pre-pandemic! I just jumped on the sourdough train and now I bake bread every Sunday. It's like my church. Carbs = life. I call my sourdough starter "my pet" and talk to it and yell at it when it isn't activating fast enough. I have baked many failed loaves. I am completely inconsistent. But it doesn't really even matter...the smell of fresh-baked bread is just *home*

Here is to hoping that the election results tomorrow yield a bit of relief for stress and anxiety already heightened by the pandemic.

Be well.