• Dijana Skrbina, Dubravka Simunović, Vjerocka Santek, and Tatjana Njegovan-Zvonarević.
• University of Applied Health Studies, Department of Occupational Therapy, Zagreb, Croatia dijana.skrbina@zvu.hr
• Acta Med Croatica. 2011 Dec 1; 65 (5): 415-23.

AbstractMan is mortal, which means that as the earthly body perishes being, final. Disease and death will always be an inevitable and integral part of human experience. The way in which we try to identify and respond to the unique and individual needs of the dying is an indication of our maturity as a society. The number of people requiring palliative care is growing. Palliative care does not intend to either accelerate or postpone death she emphasizes the life and looks at dying as a normal process. It is an active form of care for patients with advanced, progressive illness, with the aim of suppressing pain and other symptoms in addition to providing psychological, social and spiritual support which ensures the best possible quality of life for patients and their families. Therefore requires a coordinated and interdisciplinary contribution team. The variety of professions in a team, and determine the needs of patients should be ready to provide physical, psychological, social and spiritual support using methods that result from an interdisciplinary, collaborative team approach. Development of a holistic approach and awareness in the medical and allied professions has led to a renewal of interest in the inclusion of music and other expressive media in contemporary concepts of palliative care, which are consistent with problem areas, clinical manifestations and the needs of patients. Music offers a direct and uncomplicated medium of intimacy, living in a man who listens to her, has a place where words lose their power. Music is like our existence, constantly polarizing and emotionally stimulating, as it touches the medium of the earliest layers of our becoming. The use of music in palliative care has proved very effective for a variety of effects that music creates in patients. These effects are achieved through the use of various musical techniques, such as musical improvisation, songwriting, receiving creative techniques, guided by imagination and music. These techniques allow the diversity of objectives in treating patients such as reducing anxiety and stress, relaxation, pain control, reducing confusion spiritual, emotional expression, experience, self-awareness, encourage creative expression, causing mood swings - emotional, cognitive and behavioral, inducing the patient's imagination, enabling patient's chronological classification of life experiences, and the elaboration of unresolved pain, sorrow or errors. Adequate selection and use of musical techniques in palliative care in the service of achieving the best possible quality of life for patients at the end of life.

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