Support during the pandemic
At the Carmel Medical Centre in Haifa (IL), both patients and healthcare professionals are supported with a special program that aims to alleviate stress.
As many countries around the world, Israel is currently undergoing its third COVID-19 lockdown, with nearly 10,000 newly-diagnosed patients every day. The stress of hospitalization and caring for the critically-ill is overwhelming. We are conducting a unique integrative COVID-19 research program that aims to alleviate both physical and emotional symptoms and concerns among patients and medical staff in three COVID-19 departments (including ICU) at the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa (IL).
This integrative initiative is the result of a collaborative effort by Eran Ben-Arye, director of the Integrative Oncology Program (IOP), Lin Medical Center Oncology Service, Haifa (IL) and Sameer Kassem, head of Internal Medicine and two COVID-19 wards at Carmel Medical Center. The program is implemented within a clinical-research framework by Dr Orit Gressel-Raz and the IOP team.
Alleviating stress
The project is implementing knowledge and skills obtained in a three-year training in Anthroposophic Medicine (AM). Interventions often include acupuncture, a variety of manual (including AM) modalities and mind-body-spiritual practices.
Treatments are provided to patients within ‘contaminated’ areas, with IOP practitioners wearing full protective gear, including two-layered gloves through which they are able to implement touch and mindfulness therapies despite the latex barrier.
In parallel, healthcare professionals working in this setting are offered individual 40-minute treatment sessions, during their working hours, in a quiet room located adjacent to the COVID-19 ward. The treatment is geared to alleviate their most severe symptoms, which typically include physical and emotional exhaustion; compassion fatigue; muscular-skeletal pain and insomnia. A typical example is that of a young physician from the internal medicine department, who is extremely frustrated at his inability to provide adequate care to his patients. He was treated by the IOP team with a combined regimen of acupuncture and breathing exercises, while receiving gentle chest massages with Aurum Lavandula comp. Another example is a nurse who, during her 12-hour shift, complained of fatigue and of pain in her feet. She is being treated with Solum oil. She has learned the processes of re-breathing and acquired new resilience.
Research opportunity
These treatments are being monitored using ECG recordings in collaboration with Dr Jan Vagedes (DE) and his team. The recordings are used to analyze heart rate variability, comparing R-R intervals at the beginning and at the conclusion of the integrative treatment session.
The integrative COVID initiative is not only a new experience for us all, but has also proved to be very challenging to our team - despite our vast experience over the past twelve years with providing integrative oncological care to patients who are figuratively (sometimes literally) walking in ‘the Valley of the Shadow of Death’. We appreciate that patients and healthcare professionals are sharing their reflections on how the integrative impulse is ‘nourishing their body and soul’, enabling their ‘I’ to gain perspective and resilience and to rekindle compassion despite the tremendous strain and emotional exhaustion that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.