10 Incredible Things that You Made Happen!

Children's Hospital Orange County

As the Children's Music Fund kicks off its annual campaign, we want to reflect on the past year and say "Thank You!" Without your continued support of CMF, we wouldn't be able to serve chronically ill children in and out of the hospital. We will be sharing "10 incredible things..." with a new story each week throughout the campaign, please comment and share!

Number 10:

One area that we have been able to make tremendous progress is in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital Orange County (CHOC)

Here's what CHOC, has to say about CMF!

I would love to share why we are so grateful for the Children's Music Fund.
The impact of music therapy on our NICU has been immeasurable!  Thanks to this incredible gift we are able to create both stimulating and relaxing moments, both of which help our tiny babies heal.  This new intervention also educates our medical staff on the value and impacts of therapeutic supports for premature patients.  The staff also benefit from not only knowing their patients are being cared for in such a special manner, but also by feeling the difference music makes on their professional day.

Stephanie DeMello, MS, CCLS
Child Life Manager
CHOC Children's Hospital

Together we are doing great things!

Click HERE to participate in this year's Annual Fund!

Cancer Care Network Foundation Presents Grant Children's Music Fund

From left to right: Lesley Holmes, Executive Director at CMF
Karine Bagdasarian President and Co-Founder at CCNF, Hilda
Avanessianm, IrmaAcemian, Ari David, Host, and Dr Raffi
Tachdjian, President and Founder of CMF

Children's Music Fund receives Grant to help kids with Cancer

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 2nd, 2015)–On Thursday October 1, 2015, the Children’s Music Fund (http://thecmf.org/) (CMF) held its 7th annual Laughter is Medicine charity event at Improv in Los Angeles, California. The event featured a pre-show reception and included a line up with Sam Tripoli, Thai Rivera, Steve Byrne, and was hosted by Ari David.

The Laughter is Medicine event is one of the primary fundraisers for the CMF, which was established in 2002 by Dr. Raffi Tachdjian, an allergist and pediatric pain specialist. 

“Laughing, like music therapy, releases endorphins, which make us feel good, and relieves pain,” says Raffi Tachdjian, MD, MPH, President and Founder of CMF.  “

During the program, Cancer Care Network Foundation (CCNF) co founder Karine Bagdasarian presented Dr. Raffi Tachdjian,  with a grant for $5000 to provide music therapy to children suffering from various forms of cancer to ease their pain, anxiety and to offer distraction from something other than their illness. 

  

“Research shows that music therapy can have a big impact on children who are hospitalized or suffering from serious illnesses like cancer, Tachdijian added. “It helps them build the confidence and positive attitude they need to get them through their difficult struggle. If you were in the hospital and facing painful procedure, wouldn't it be nice to have a music therapist and your own musical instrument to help you overcome the fear, the pain and the anxiety?" 

About the Children’s Music Fund: 

The Children’s Music Fund (CMF) is a national charity with a mission to provide music therapy and musical instruments to children and young adults with chronic or life-altering illnesses, and to support research on the effects of music therapy.   

About Cancer Care Foundation: The Cancer Care Network Foundation's primary mission is to provide advocacy and resources to eliminate barriers to quality care for patients affected by cancer.  Funds raised will provide financial assistance, complementary support for patients and families currently fighting cancer, as well as support for projects and organizations that provide charitable services to our community in the field of cancer care, education and prevention.

Shop at Ralph's? You can help CMF every time you shop!

Easy way to raise money for CMF! 

September 1st, 20115

Shopping for groceries can now help bring the healing power of music to children with life-altering illnesses and chronic conditions. Simply shop at Ralphs and scan your linked Ralphs Rewards Card and Children's Music Fund will benefit. 

How can you help you ask?  It's easy - Simply continue to do what you already do.... Shop at Ralphs.

Simply take the attached Scanned letter to Ralph's next time you shop and link it to your Ralph's card account - that's it...easy as pie.

Ralph's Community Support Program gives away $2 million dollars every 12 months - All we have to shop at Ralph's. By linking your Ralph's card to Children's Music Fund,  CMF will receive quarterly disbursements based on the number of people supporting our cause.  So tell your family, tell your friends, there is no cost to link you card, and all you have to do is to continue do your regular grocery shopping.

Thank you for your continued support as we aim to bring the healing power of music to over 2000 kids this year!

Together we are doing great things!

New community support cycle starts September 1st and requires a sign up every year. 

Children's Music Fund Donates Instruments to Miller Children's and Women's Hospital in Long Beach

Children's Music Fund brings More Music to Hospitals!

Laurel Terreri, MA, MT-BC
 with Lesley Holmes, Executive Director, CMF
and Rita Goshert, MA CCLS Clinical Operations manager
at Miller CHildren's and Women's Hospital 

July 24th, 2015, Long Beach California -
More healing through music will happen in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Miller Children's and Women's Hospital thanks to a recent donation of instruments from The Children's Music Fund (CMF) on Friday July 24th, 2015.

CMF donated a REMO RBL Kit which includes a Lullaby Ocean Disc Drum and a Gato Box. The drum emulates the intrauterine sound environment (womb sounds) which promotes sleep in premature babies. This drum was developed by Remo for use in the "First Sounds: Rhythm Breath and Lullaby" Program.*

CMF provides 4 hours of music therapy a week to Miller Children's and Women's Hospital by a board certified Music Therapist with specific NICU certification.

Children's Music Fund is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides musical instruments and music therapy for children with life altering illnesses and chronic conditions and supports research on the effects of music therapy.

For more information or to make a tax deductible donation please visit www.thecmf.org.

Laurel Terreri, MA, MT-BC,  Rita Goshert, MA CCLS Clinical Operations manager
and CMF music therapist Brooke Tittinger MT-BC, at Miller CHildren's and Women's Hospital 

* First Sounds: Rhythm, Breath and Lullaby is a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Music Therapy training being developed internationally. The program is founded on evidence-based research led by an integrative team of doctors, nurses and music therapists in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The program was developed by Joanne Loewy, DA, LCAT, MT-BC at Beth Israel Medical Center

Children's Music Fund Expands Services in Children's Hospital Orange County

Orange, CA (June 2015) – Children’s Music Fund (CMF) expanded music therapy services into another hospital this month (Children’s Hospital Orange County) in order to serve the tiniest of patients in need of the healing power of music.  For two hours a week, a CMF Board Certified Music Therapist with specialty certification in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), will provide music therapy to infants to help with their healing needs.

Two of the instruments used in the NICU are the REMO Ocean Disc, meant to replicate the whooshing sounds of the uterus, and the Gato Box, which the therapist can play to provide rhythm to mimic and regulate the infants’ breathing or heart rate.  CMF Chairman of the Board, Ara Oghoorian, CFA, CFP® adds, “As these little warriors fight for their lives, music will give them a peaceful space to fight on.”

“Premature babies respond amazingly well to positive stimuli. These include a parent’s voice, rhythmic and soft melodic music, and human touch. These are all things music therapy can provide,” says CMF founder and President Dr. Raffi Tachdjian. “At CMF, we help bring music into the hospital.”

About Children’s Music Fund
CMF is a Los Angeles based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide musical instruments and music therapy to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults with chronic conditions and life-altering illnesses and to support research on the medical benefits of music therapy. CMF was established in 2002 by Dr. Raffi Tachdjian, an allergist and former director of the pediatric pain clinic at David Geffen School of medicine at UCLA. Research shows that music therapy can help lesson the burden of pain, sadness, anxiety and loneliness, and create opportunities for self-expression and social communication. CMF currently provides music therapy in eight hospitals, and in 2015 has provided services and instruments to over 750 children.

Contact: Lesley Holmes, Executive Director

(310) 428-0589 www.thecmf.org Lesley@thecmf.org                                

     

What Exactly is Music Therapy?

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"1

What Music Therapy Is...and Is Not

The more music the better, bring it on!

"But clinical MUSIC THERAPY is the only professional research-based discipline that actively applies supportive science to the creative, emotional, and energizing experiences of music for health treatment goals."1

Music Therapy is: 

• Music Therapists must have a bachelor's degree or higher in music therapy

• Music Therapists have completed 1200 hours of clinical training.

• Music Therapists Must hold a MT-BC credential, issued through Certification Board for Music  Therapists, which protects the public by ensuring competent practice and requiring continuing education.

• Music Therapy is an evidence based health profession with a strong research foundation.

• Music therapy degrees require knowledge in psychology, medicine and music.

Music Therapy is Not:

• A person with dementia listening to his favorite songs on an iPod with headphones.

• Celebrities performing at hospitals or schools.

• A piano player in a hospital

• Nurses playing background music for patients

• A choir singing on the pediatric floor of a hospital

"Music Therapy can make the difference between withdrawal and awareness, between isolation and interaction, between chronic pain and comfort - between demoralization and dignity" - Barbara Crowe (past president of National Association for Music Therapy) 

 At CMF our Board Certified Music Therapists:

• Work with children with brain injuries or brain trauma to help reconnect neurons and increase brain activity.

• Work with children to reduce asthma episodes

• Work with children in the hospital to reduce pain

• Work with children who have autism to improve communication capabilities and decrease stress and anxiety

• Work with pre-mature infants to improve sleep patterns and increase weight gain.

"Music is universal but it is also highly individual and empowering."2 

Music therapy is so individualized that "going forward doctors may actually be prescribing a 'course' of musical numbers"3

 Imagine getting a prescription for your very own "mixed tape" from your doctor!

Children's Music Fund is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization  committed to provide music therapy and bring the healing power of music to children with life altering and chronic conditions.  For more information or to make a donation please visit our website:  www.thecmf.org 

1. American Music Therapy Association http://www.musictherapy.org

2. Music As Medicine: A Historical Perspective and Review of Select Clinical Applications, Alternative and Complementary Therapies, October 2013 Talin Babikian, Lonnie Zeltzer, Vartan Tachdjian, Lindsay Henry, Elan Javanfard, Lara Tucci, Mary Goodarzi , Raffi Tachdjian 

3. Music is medicine to the brain..!! Dr. NK Venkataramanaa BGS Global Institute of Neurosciences

Laugh Factory Hosts 6th Annual Laughter is Medicine for Children's Music Fund

 

The Laugh Factory Hosts 6th Annual ‘Laughter is Medicine’ Comedy Night Supporting Children’s Music Fund

LOS ANGELES, CA (March 10, 2015)–On March 12, 2015, the Children’s Music Fund (http://thecmf.org/) (CMF) will hold its 6th annual Laughter is Medicine benefit event at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, California. The event will include a line up with Dom Irrera, America’s Got Talent runner up Taylor Williamson, Moshe Kasher, Dan Adhoot and hosted by Sunda Croonquist.

The Laughter is Medicine event is one of the primary fundraisers for the CMF, which was established in 2002 by Dr. Raffi Tachdjian, an allergist and pediatric pain specialist.  

“Laughing, like music therapy,  releases  endorphins, which make us feel good, and relieve pain,” says Raffi Tachdjian, MD, MPH, President and Founder of CMF.  “Research shows that music therapy can have a big impact on children who are hospitalized or suffering from serious illnesses.  It helps them build the confidence and positive attitude they need to get them through their difficult struggle. If you were in the hospital and facing painful procedure, wouldn't it be nice to have a music therapist and your own musical instrument to help you overcome the fear, the pain and the anxiety?"

Music therapy has a big impact on children who are hospitalized, it's simple, it works and it's a great complementary and alternative form of medicine 

- Raffi Tachdjian, MD, MPH 

“During our yearly ‘Laughter is Medicine’ event at the Laugh Factory, the average attendee spends 2 hours laughing away, attendees help CMF provide laughter, joy and melody to a child or young adult with a chronic illness.  It's simple, it works, it's a great complementary and alternative form of medicine,” adds Tachdjian.

Individual tickets to the Laughter is Medicine event are $50 for General Admission or $100 for Priority Admission and can be purchased by visiting http://www.laughfactory.com/clubs/hollywood/date/2015-03-12  Please contact Lesley on 310-428-0589 or lesley@thecmf.org for more information

About the Children’s Music Fund:

The Children’s Music Fund (CMF) is a national charity with a mission to provide music therapy and musical instruments to children and young adults with chronic or life-altering illnesses, and to support research on the effects of music therapy.   

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