Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Mindfulness Program Delivered by Web to Patients During Hospitalization and Caregivers.

Overview

Hospitalization is often a traumatic event so stressful for the life of patients. Isolation, loneliness, worries about clinical examinations, results from examinations and final diagnosis, uncertainty about the future are the most common feelings that patients report when during hospitalized for different disease conditions; these feelings are not related to the pathological condition. Also the discomfort of the caregivers is significant, as the necessities and priorities of the family change significantly during the hospitalization of a member (worries about the future, help and support are not enough to sustain the situation, problems with the work schedule ). Nowadays in North American and North European countries, mindfulness practice is offered to patients by multifaith Chaplaincy teams and health-care operators (e.g. physicians, nurses, psychologists), as a way of helping patients come to terms with diagnosis and adjust to their prognosis. To the extent that patients can bear it, instructions are given to keep coming back to the present moment, here and now, to bodily and affective experience, relaxing in it. To that purpose patients are encouraged to accept the situation as it develops, and let go of excessive concerns and unhelpful narratives that undermine the capacity to manage pain, fear and suffering. Moreover, similar programmes are designed for caregivers and the patients' families, aimed at developing their resilience in delivering the support, via face-to-face sessions, and instructions and encouragement for a regular practice at home. In the last years, due to the dramatic emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, different applications for mindfulness have been realized by specific APPs or web platforms that allow patients to practice mindfulness regularly guided by a physician or an expert in mindfulness: patients can stay at home and mindfulness sessions can be delivered by technological modalities. In different hospitals, protocols have been implemented for the treatment of patients remotely, using specific platforms or APPs. These remote interventions are complementary to the regular face-to-face sessions and they are suitable for most patients and easily applied.

Background: Hospitalization is often a traumatic event so stressful for the life of patients. Isolation, loneliness, worries about clinical examinations, results from examinations and final diagnosis, uncertainty about the future are the most common feelings that patients report when they are hospitalized for different disease conditions; these states of mind may be experienced independently of the type of pathological condition they are affected by Also the discomfort of the caregivers is significant, as the necessities and priorities of the family change significantly during the hospitalization of a member (worries about the future, help and support are not enough to sustain the situation, problems with the work schedule ) Significance: The practice of mindfulness has become common in different clinical applications, pain, anxiety and other kinds of disease. In particular protocols based on mindfulness practice are often combined to pharmacological therapies, as initial findings support the utility of mindfulness intervention to modulate attention and emotional reactions to pain chronification Meditation has a long history of use for increasing calmness and physical relaxation, improving psychological balance, coping with illness, and enhancing overall health and well-being. The practice has the purpose to teach individuals how to maintain focus on a stimulus while simultaneously allowing intruding thoughts/feelings to be acknowledged, but not judged. Hospitalization is often a traumatic event so stressful for the life of patients. Isolation, loneliness, worries about clinical examinations, results of examinations and final diagnosis, uncertainty about the future are the most common feelings that patients report during hospitalization for different disease conditions; these states of mind may be experienced independently of the type of pathological condition the patients are affected by. Also the discomfort of the caregivers is significant, as the necessities and priorities of the family change significantly during the hospitalization of a member (worries about the future, help and support are not enough to sustain the situation Nowadays in North American and North European countries, mindfulness practice is offered to patients by multifaith Chaplaincy teams and health-care operators (e.g. physicians, nurses, psychologists), as a way of helping them come to terms with the diagnosis and adjust to their prognosis. To the extent that they can bear it, instructions are given to keep coming back to the present moment, here and now, to bodily and affective experience, relaxing in it. To that purpose patients are encouraged to accept the situation as it develops, and let go of excessive concerns and unhelpful narratives that undermine the capacity to manage pain, fear and suffering. Moreover, similar programmes are designed for caregivers and the patients' families, aimed at developing resilience in delivering their support, via face-to-face sessions, and instructions and encouragement for a regular practice at home. In the last years, due to the dramatic emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, different applications for mindfulness have been realized by specific APPs or web platforms that allow patients to practice mindfulness regularly guided by a physician or an expert in mindfulness: patients can stay at home and mindfulness sessions can be delivered by technological modalities. In several hospitals, different protocols have been implemented for the treatment of patients remotely, using specific platforms or APPs. These remote interventions are complementary to the regular face-to-face sessions and they are suitable for most patients and easily applied.