IHBT Supportive team

The comprehensive approach to care at IHBT in 2020 included the offer of humanly responsible and professionally grounded accompaniment by staff members of the multidisciplinary Supportive Team. The activity of the team is based on the experience that hemato-oncological diseases mean a new life situation that causes a considerable mental and existential strain. Patients in the new situation need to orient themselves and to start functional adaptation processes. Often a need arises to settle life values, to seek sense in one‘s life and to cope with uncertainty that naturally accompanies one‘s life with the disease ever since it breaks out. A concentrated support atthe social, psychological and spiritual level can help come to terms with the uncertainty of a difficult situation in one‘s life.

A specific and basic field of support is the care of patients with an incurable disease and their families, including the help to the bereaved after the death of a sick person.

The challenges linked to the epidemiological situation put a further emphasis on the need of accessible supportive care. The Covid-19 pandemic brought about the feeling of danger, as well as necessary epidemiological measures leading to the isolation of patients both in inpatient regimen and in home environment. Thus, the need of interpersonal closeness and the demand of psychological, spiritual and social care grew proportionately to the situation. At the same time, in view of patients‘ safety, a part of the activity was transformed into distance form (telephone and online interventions and consultations). A friendly support of hospital staff members became another important field of activity of the Supportive Team.