Harpist finds joy in caring for the dying

Following the death of her mother, Charlene Elderkin was left with a nagging question. She wondered, after seeing her as a hospice patient, if there was any way to help patients in their end stages aside from the use of drugs or medicine.

It's a question she wouldn't find an answer to for many years, but she never stopped searching. Eventually, though, she ran right into what she was looking for, and doing so would change her career and fulfill her ways she hadn't known before.

Elderkin is a therapeutic musician at Emplify Health by Gundersen, specializing in the harp. This is her fourth year in the role, which is part of a relatively new program offered by the Hospice department. The goal of this work, she says, is to create a healing environment for palliative care and hospice patients in which music is the central focus.

"My job as a therapeutic musician is to play music that feels good to you," she says. "If anything I do isn't feeling good to you, you can tell me to stop, no problem. You won't hurt my feelings."

It's more than simply playing songs, however; it's about providing a patient with what they need while experiencing the moment they're in.

'How can I ease the transition?'

On a warm spring afternoon in May, Elderkin was at Maplewood Terrace in Viroqua for a rather unusual appointment. Typically, her job is to play for patients, but this day, this specific person wanted to play her keyboard with Elderkin. What's more, Tracy Mangold, another therapeutic musician who plays guitar, joined them - a rare occurrence - and the trio practiced a bit before putting on a small performance for the rest of the residents at dinner.

"She has a keyboard in her room, and we practice songs. That's what the whole session is - practicing songs," Elderkin says of the woman she visits in Viroqua. "If you're going to practice songs, you want to play them. So, at Christmas time, we did a little singalong in the dining room. When that was over, we just kept going."

It's an example of how Elderkin adapts her work to the situation she's presented. Duets, admittedly, are rare for her, as most visits involve just her and her harp. She travels to wherever her patient is - be it in their home, an assisting living facility, the hospital or elsewhere. Sessions last around 30 minutes, and she plays for four to seven patients each day in and around Sparta, Holmen, Viroqua and other places near La Crosse and Onalaska.

With hospice, it's possible Elderkin will play for a person just once, but in other cases, she's been with someone for up to two years, "so then you're really a part of their world." Over that amount of time, she learns about the style of music they like - folk songs or maybe church hymns - and what works best on a good day, as well as the harder ones.

"We're taught the different patient conditions and what kind of music and tempo work with them, and then we apply them in the moment," she says. "There's not a set list. There's what you have in your head and hands and voice and showing up for that day."

And when Elderkin is with a person, she doesn't play just any song; there's much to consider about the specific situation. Is the person alert or asleep? How old is the person? Is the person in pain? Is the person actively dying?

"You're looking for things that don't disturb them," she says. "You're looking for signs of tension when people are unconscious. The idea is that you match where they are and then move.

"I come in with, how can I ease the transition?" she adds, "because that's a blessing to them."

It's always been about the music

Elderkin grew up around music. Her dad was a musician who played in bands before moving to Madison and finding a steady gig at a piano bar. While he practiced at home, she became familiar with the songs of that generation.

But then, years later, came her mom's illness and experience with hospice care - and the question Elderkin held onto, even throughout her time as a hospice volunteer and working in that specialized space.

It wasn't until she attended an end-of-life conference where she met a woman who played harp at the bedside of dying people. Elderkin didn't play the harp at that time, but it wasn't a requirement to start a similar program; you just had to learn.

So, 14 years ago, at 57 years old, she rented a small harp from a friend and took in-person and online lessons, and that eventually led her to the Music for Healing and Transition program, which she's currently a member of and has received her Certified Music Practitioner certification.

"It really was questions I had from my mother's death, and with my dad's music background, when I heard about music, it was like, bingo, that's it," Elderkin says. "That's the answer to my question. How can I help people?"

Elderkin worked for a time in marketing, but as she was learning the harp with the goal of becoming a therapeutic musician, she found it was a much better fit for her passion.

"I really felt that pull that I want to do work that is heart-centered rather than head," she says. "It's a place that I can grow in my own heart. You're part of the experience of bringing that joy out in them. For me, I consider it the best job a musician can have."

To help

Medicaid does not cover the cost of the therapeutic music program, so at Emplify Health by Gundersen, it is fully subsidized by the Gundersen Medical Foundation. In hopes of expanding services to reach more people, you can support the program with a gift to the Hospice Fund by scanning the QR code.