Coping with cancer, one tune at a time

Jipmer, in collaboration with Ashwin Maharaj Foundation, launches music therapy for patients

Music as medicine: Music therapy sessions will provide psychological and emotional support for patients at the Oncology unit.

Jipmer’s Department of Oncology, in collaboration with Chennai-based Ashwin Maharaj Foundation, has launched music therapy for cancer patients.

Besides music therapy sessions, the Foundation will also distribute free supplementary nutrition (high protein powder) once a month for daycare chemotherapy patients in Jipmer.

The Foundation, which was established in 2015 by Dr. D. Ramasubramanian and M. Manonmani, in the name of their son who died of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, is looking to tap volunteers and philanthropists to take the programme forward.

Music therapy sessions will be an addition to the various programmes of Jipmer’s Oncology unit aimed at providing psychological and emotional support for patients at its Regional Cancer Centre.

According to Jipmer, music therapy interventions can be designed to promote wellness, manage stress, alleviate pain, express feelings, enhance memory, improve communication, and promote physical rehabilitation. The effectiveness of music therapy for oncology patients has also been documented in numerous descriptive and experimental studies, it is pointed out.

The Ashwin Maharaj Foundation has been tying up with various leading cancer care hospitals across the country such as the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) and the Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai.

Students from over 40 other colleges are working with the noble mission across different states.

In Puducherry, the Jipmer Nursing College, Mother Theresa Nursing College, PIMS and Vivekananda College are among the institutions who have joined the mission.