IHC calls for greater support for NHS frontline workers with PTSD

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    [ID] => 23349
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    [post_date] => 2021-02-12 16:24:53
    [post_date_gmt] => 2021-02-12 15:24:53
    [post_content] => The Integrated Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) has written to Health Ministers across the UK asking them to grant dispensation for complementary, traditional and natural healthcare therapists and practitioners to support intensive care staff, and other key NHS frontline workers during current Covid restrictions. This action has come following recent reports of high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety in intensive care staff.

The complementary, traditional and natural healthcare sector has played an important, but often unrecognised role, in supporting the health and wellbeing of people, including NHS frontline workers themselves, during the Covid 19 pandemic, where appropriate and permitted by government regulations.

Whilst some therapists and practitioners can carry out online consultations, and statutory regulated ones can continue in person, the majority of close contact therapists and practitioners have had to cease working in the current national lockdown, except those providing for essential medical and health needs which cannot be deferred, as outlined in government legislation. This has prevented people from accessing services to support their health and wellbeing.

IHC members are concerned at the high reported levels of stress and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms exhibited by NHS staff working in Intensive Care Units (ICU) highlighted in the recent research by Greenberg.1 The health and wellbeing of these key frontline staff must be supported during the pandemic, but NHS based therapy services face considerable pressures and capacity issues.

Close contact therapies and practices, in which touch is a key component, have been shown to reduce circulating levels of stress hormones, alleviate depressive symptoms, improve immune function, enhance attentiveness and reduce pain.

Therapists and practitioners within IHC member organisations are professionally trained, and follow the government’s strict Covid safe work guidelines. The positive effect of allowing key NHS workers to access these services, if they wish to, could play an important part in maintaining and improving their health and wellbeing as they work in these challenging circumstances, and during the months ahead.

We are therefore urging governments to grant dispensation for complementary, traditional and natural healthcare close contact therapists and practitioners, represented by the IHC, to legally work in order to support NHS front line staff during current Covid restrictions.

The Integrated Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) is a collection of 26 leading professional associations including the Society of Homeopaths and stakeholders within complementary, traditional and natural healthcare, working together on common areas of interest, to increase access to these therapies, promote greater integration with conventional Western medicine, and improve patient outcomes.

1.Mental health of staff working in intensive care during COVID-19 N Greenberg, D Weston, C Hall, T Caulfield, V Williamson, K Fong. Occup Med (Lond). 2021 Jan 13;kqaa220. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqaa220. Online ahead of print.

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The Integrated Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) has written to Health Ministers across the UK asking them to grant dispensation for complementary, traditional and natural healthcare therapists and practitioners to support intensive care staff, and other key NHS frontline workers during current Covid restrictions. This action has come following recent reports of high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety in intensive care staff.

The complementary, traditional and natural healthcare sector has played an important, but often unrecognised role, in supporting the health and wellbeing of people, including NHS frontline workers themselves, during the Covid 19 pandemic, where appropriate and permitted by government regulations.

Whilst some therapists and practitioners can carry out online consultations, and statutory regulated ones can continue in person, the majority of close contact therapists and practitioners have had to cease working in the current national lockdown, except those providing for essential medical and health needs which cannot be deferred, as outlined in government legislation. This has prevented people from accessing services to support their health and wellbeing.

IHC members are concerned at the high reported levels of stress and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms exhibited by NHS staff working in Intensive Care Units (ICU) highlighted in the recent research by Greenberg.1 The health and wellbeing of these key frontline staff must be supported during the pandemic, but NHS based therapy services face considerable pressures and capacity issues.

Close contact therapies and practices, in which touch is a key component, have been shown to reduce circulating levels of stress hormones, alleviate depressive symptoms, improve immune function, enhance attentiveness and reduce pain.

Therapists and practitioners within IHC member organisations are professionally trained, and follow the government’s strict Covid safe work guidelines. The positive effect of allowing key NHS workers to access these services, if they wish to, could play an important part in maintaining and improving their health and wellbeing as they work in these challenging circumstances, and during the months ahead.

We are therefore urging governments to grant dispensation for complementary, traditional and natural healthcare close contact therapists and practitioners, represented by the IHC, to legally work in order to support NHS front line staff during current Covid restrictions.

The Integrated Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) is a collection of 26 leading professional associations including the Society of Homeopaths and stakeholders within complementary, traditional and natural healthcare, working together on common areas of interest, to increase access to these therapies, promote greater integration with conventional Western medicine, and improve patient outcomes.

1.Mental health of staff working in intensive care during COVID-19 N Greenberg, D Weston, C Hall, T Caulfield, V Williamson, K Fong. Occup Med (Lond). 2021 Jan 13;kqaa220. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqaa220. Online ahead of print.

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