Our Work in Lafayette LA Serving
Evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Anne and I are Certified Music Practitioners. After we had made our
decision to take our instruments and music to assist recovery in the Gulf Coast area, I put a posting up on the
CMP list
serve seeking volunteer opportunities to assist the victims. Betti
Vidrine, a practitioner in Lafayette, LA offered to make arrangements for us
to share our healing music in her area.
So
on Christmas day, we left New Orleans and headed west for two hours to
her community that fortunately had been spared the wrath of Katrina. Betti invited
us into her home, and she and her husband shared their traditional
Christmas dinner with us, homemade seafood gumbo. We also received
an introduction to "cracklins" and other Cajun delights. Dessert was
gathered by her husband as he collected fresh citrus fruit from his backyard
orchard. We finished off the evening by getting out the instruments
(Betti is also a harper) and sharing our favorite music.
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Then
Jill Laroussini (RN
MSN) arrived. Jill is the Community Health Nursing Instructor
in the Lafayette College of Nursing & Allied Health Professions,
University of Louisiana. She had prepared our way for the week, and
would also transport us to each of our assignments. |
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Jill tries on Anne's harp for size |
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She and her husband
graciously allowed us to park our RV in their yard and introduced us
to more Cajun hospitality in the form of several dinners and
stimulating conversations about health care. This led to a
discussion of Lafayette's role in facilitating the evacuees from
Katrina. |
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Cajun Dome Opens its Doors
After the hurricane, the LA University Lafayette
campus immediately opened its sports facility, the Cajun
Dome, to the evacuees. Just as things were settling in and
becoming organized, Rita slammed the coast directly south of
Lafayette, and all these refugees in the Cajun Dome had to be taken further north to
Shreveport.
Two weeks later, they were
brought back to the Cajun Dome and shared the facility with all the
homeless created by Rita's devastation. In all they served 40,000
people, 28,000 at a time.
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Note the "comforting" layout of specific
areas for each family and the beautiful quilts that must have
been donated. |
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Health professionals
from the community were quick to volunteer their services and Walgreen's
donated a pharmacy. Jill's nursing students also played important
roles in this comforting atmosphere. A healing room was opened to provide massage and
healing touch to the disaster workers and evacuees.
It was a true example of how one community could
immediately rise to the needs of others in a very effective and healing
way.
We were
touched by the genuine graciousness of the Lafayette and their willingness
to give everything possible to their unfortunate seaside neighbors.
Live Healing Music for Patients at
Our Lady of the Lourdes
Jill
arranged for our presence at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center.
Our offering to heal through a creative venue of live music was truly
touched by our two days within this facility. We began by setting a
warm tone to the comfortable ambience of staff and facility in the
cardiac infusion unit. Present within the room were day patients who spent
several hours receiving their intravenous treatments.
From
there, we went to the cancer unit. This was an especially meaningful
opportunity as we were able to assist two patients in transition and their
families. Anne entered one room where the family was quite agitated
over the departing status of their loved one. It only took her few
minutes, and the family soon found resolution and peace. As she was
leaving, a very tearful and grateful wife sought her out with the warmth
of an appreciative hug.
Time in
the critical care unit provided us with similar feelings of worth.
We could feel the stress and tension combined with the vulnerability of
the patients. Crafting our offering to blend with their desperate
needs, accessed our ability to be alert and attentive.
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We also found some delightful sharing with an older
Afro-American. We discovered that
she had no idea how many children she had raised, as her life's
occupation was providing a home for foster children. One of the dozens of foster
children she had raised was there along with her infant daughter.
The genuine love that this older woman had sowed was radiantly
displayed in the vibrancy this daughter and granddaughter.
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Several hours were spent in the Bethany MHS facility
associated with the hospital . This is a living arrangement with
medical care set up for sisters of the Catholic faith. In addition
to the warmth and acceptance of the sisters, there were several women who
had been placed there by their families. Some of their husbands were
visiting and were extremely helpful in facilitating our sharing with the
residents and their loved ones. Afterwards, we spent time talking
with them and were touched by their depth and dedication to their less
fortunate mates.
KRVS Radio Program
Still, a different opportunity was created when we were
asked to be on Lagniappe (please don't ask me to pronounce it).
This is a live interview and music program produced for the local public
radio station, KRVS.
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Marci Lacouture, was a Certified Music Practitioner intern. We
thoroughly enjoyed her capacity to bring out our feelings about
therapeutic music and where and how it can be used.
All this was topped off by several opportunities to demonstrate
our art. |
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Live Music for
Vermillion Parish Nursing Facilities
Jody L. Mittiga, RN, ND (Director of
Nursing, St. Theresa's Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc.) was also of
great help
in making our services available to the refugees and residents of two
nursing homes in the Vermillion Parish close to the Gulf Coast. Both
of these facilities had received Katrina evacuees to be had to be
evacuated prior to the approach of Hurricane Rita. One had received flood water from the storm's wave surge.
Both were back in operation by the time we arrived.
The Vermillion Health Care facility
was the scene for demonstrating the energizing power of healing music.
At the request of one of the residents, we began playing How Great Thou
Art.
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From
the far side of the room, I heard the magnificent sound of one of
the most powerful contralto voices I have ever heard. She was
singing an alto line which totally dwarfed my gentle wood flute
melody. I could imagine in my mind a similar spiritually
directed soaring soprano voice joining her with a more suitable
melody than the flute. While that failed to occur, a man
sitting next to her began to add that melody. It was as if
someone had opened the door to the whole universe, and the whole
room with all its residents became totally alive and singing with
this experience. |
From there we headed to the
Alzheimer's unit feeling that the peak opportunity of the day had already
been achieved. Several patients were sitting in a U arrangement, and
our presence finished a circle. I was amazed by how gently attentive
these men and women were to our sharing.
At the same time, I was attracted to
one woman who did not have the clamness of her contemporaries.
With great frustration, she continually tried to find words to share about
our musical offering. I felt badly for her but was unable to provide
facilitation other than to be present to her and attempt to touch her with
the music.
Danny Boy proved
to be the entrance into her release as she began to hum along as we played
it.
Finally resolution truly occurred from somewhere deep within when she
began singing the Brahms Lullaby with us.
When we finished, Anne took her harp to the woman and allowed her to
strum its strings. Resolution became complete as she gently smiled
with the peacefulness of her accomplishment, saying, "This is fun!".
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More important
work was discovered at the Morris Lahaskey Nursing Home in Erath,
LA.
After sharing with the group in the day room, we approached the bed
bound patients individually within their rooms. |
One woman failed to respond when
asked if she would like some music. Being careful, we decided to
play a few notes, watching closely for any type of response that would
indicate we should not continue. Our choice was the familiar
Simple Gifts played at an extremely relaxed tempo to pace her
breathing.
To our amazement, a hand emerged from
under the covers and began moving as if to indicate a faster tempo.
We immediately responded to her direction. The end result was the
sharing of several selections with this woman being totally in charge as
she conducted "our" ensemble.
Later, we were informed that she was
often combative when approached by others. This was just one more
reminder of music's capacity to touch others where verbal language often
fails.
Both of these homes moved us with the
deep respect and dignity the staff gave to their patients. It was very
apparent that the residents were more important than the staff, a rarity
in nursing homes. It was so pleasant to hear staff address each
person with "Miss" or "Mr." followed by their first names. We were
also introduced as Miss Anne and Mr. Gary.
Home Concert for
Our Hosts
When we began planning our departure
from Lafayette, we thought it would be fitting to provide our hosts, Jill
and Bob
Laroussini with a
home concert. They cleared out the carport and moved their Christmas tree and its
lights from the house into it for decoration. An unexpectedly
balmy evening occurred as we set up the instruments and chairs for the
guests in the outdoor atmosphere.
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The invited neighbors and relatives arrived, all bringing with them
that famous Southern hospitality and the warmth of prepared food.
Jambalaya was the main dish, and we were pleasantly "intoxicated" by
the presence of many sugared delicacies provided by the guests.
Our music was
accompanied by the arrival of a few intrusive mosquitoes. We
responded by telling our hosts that they were nothing compared to
the genetically modified dive bombers we raise in Michigan.
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Our Thanks to Those Who Facilitated Us in Lafayette
We wish to thank the
many individuals and organizations that facilitated our work in Lafayette.
They should recognize that they are a model for other communities in their
capacities to meet the needs of desperate people who had been displaced
from their own communities..
If you are intrigued
by the work of Certified Music Practitioners, you can learn more
about the Certified Music Practitioner title
and the training involved at our site. You can also find if there is
a Certified Music Practitioner in your area at
www.mhtp.org.
Click
here for reports on our hurricane relief mission
Should
parts of New Orleans be bulldozed?
What is Common Ground Relief?
What is
Algiers Free Medical Clinic?
What is the future of
Lady Star of the Sea Church?
Gary's
journal from the trip
Other
New Orleans links
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