The use of music therapy to address psychosocial needs of informal caregivers: An integrative review

Abstract

In 2020 there were estimated to be 117 million Americans who needed care assistance, which continues to rise as the aging population increases. The complexities of caregiving duties, the balance of employment, and how long caregiving duties last contribute to caregiver physiological and psychological health needs. Music therapy, an interdisciplinary health profession incorporating patient-and-family centered care, is an effective nonpharmacological approach for psychosocial health needs, including those effecting informal caregivers. The purpose of this investigation was to systematically review and analyze the existent music therapy literature addressing psychosocial needs of informal caregivers. Studies were obtained through a computer-assisted search using OneSearch platform, ProQuest Databases, and a manual search of pertinent journals based on the established criteria. The search produced (N = 50) studies, which were appraised for quality utilizing Cuenca & Crawford’s (2011) Evidence Leveling System (ELS). Three categories were developed to sort and synthesize the literature including articles with interventions targeting joint informal caregiver (ICG) and care receiver (CR) participation (n = 30), ICG specific participation (n = 12), and CR specific participation (n = 8). Most studies utilized an experimental design (n = 15) and incorporated a variety of active music therapy techniques in a group format (n = 10) or songwriting (n = 13).