Wallace Foundation Helps Fund Music Therapy Program For Kansas Children’s Foundation
The Kansas Children’s Foundation (formerly Wesley Children’s Foundation) was created to secure funding for programs and services that improve the lives of ill or injured Kansas children. They offer individual assistance to Kansas families struggling with the costs associated with receiving care, such as medical equipment, prescriptions, and travel. Additionally, they offer Program Grants to organizations across Kansas that provide assistance for the health, safety, and happiness of children. Many grants support families receiving care at Wesley Children’s Hospital, the only dedicated children’s hospital in Kansas, through free art, music, and STEM therapies and through a much-loved facility dog, Carl.
In 2017, the Dwane and Velma Wallace Foundation awarded the Kansas Children’s Foundation a grant that helped to establish a music therapy program at Wesley Children’s Hospital.
According to the American Music Therapy Association, music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. Not limited to the patient’s musical ability, music therapy can be applied to virtually any diagnosis or age range.
With the help of the Wallace Foundation’s grant, the Kansas Children’s Foundation established the music therapy program and hired a full-time music therapist named Jordan Lumley. Since December 2017, Lumley has held more than 2,000 sessions with pediatric patients and their families. Lumley leads the patient in singing and playing a variety of musical instruments, including bells, drums, xylophone, tambourine, ukulele, and more.
As an intervention-based treatment, music therapists evaluate each case to determine if music therapy is appropriate. Situations that warrant music therapy include:
- A patient experiencing anxiety or not coping well with hospitalization or diagnosis
- A patient experiencing emotional trauma
- A patient enduring excessive pain in need of alternative management
- A patient with a negative prognosis near the end of life
- A patient or family experiencing grief
- A patient in need of appropriate developmental stimulation
- A patient in need of an appropriate emotional outlet
- A patient suffering pain or anxiety during a procedure
- A patient with a limited support system
Celia Cayless, Kansas Children’s Foundation’s Executive Director, says that it’s clear Lumley loves what she does and that her work makes a marked difference in Wesley’s pediatric patients.
“The stress release from Jordan’s music therapy sessions has a profound impact on patient morale,” Cayless said. “The hospital recorded higher satisfaction scores for children with whom she has held music therapy sessions.”
The Kansas Children’s Foundation funds other programs at Wesley Children’s Hospital, such as art and pet therapy, as well as providing grants to assist the families of sick or injured children. To accomplish this, they rely on grants like the one provided by the Wallace Foundation and charitable donations. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Kansas Children’s Foundation, visit KSChildrensFoundation.org/how-to-help/ and watch their video to see the difference your contribution could make.
More About the Wallace Foundation
Founded by Dwane and Velma Wallace in 1989, the Wallace Foundation’s mission is to support a wide variety of tax-exempt, charitable organizations primarily in the Wichita, Kansas area, and secondarily in the state of Kansas, in the categories of: arts and culture, education, community development and enhancement, social services and needs, and quality of life.
To apply for a grant from the Wallace Foundation, visit the Grant Application page.