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Bringing music to the bedside, UM social worker performs for hospital patients

University of Michigan Health System
/
University of Michigan
Betsy Beckerman

There’s little doubt that music can influence our emotions in powerful ways. From pumping us up, to soothing and comforting — music can take us there.

And that’s what Ann Arbor-based singer-musician and social worker Betsy Beckerman hopes to do. She’s a bedside musician, offering her guitar and voice to patients of all ages at the University of Michigan Hospital. 

"[There's] a relief to be acknowledged as a human being, rather than a diagnosis."

Beckerman’s work is part of the Gifts of Art program at the University’s Health System, and it’s one of the best examples in the nation of what’s known as “arts in healthcare.”

Betsy Beckerman joins us in the studio.

Listen to the full interview above.

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