The International Journal of Whole Person Care
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Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for cancer patients
Get PDFDespite significant advances in symptom management for patients affected by serious illness, physicians lack effective legal treatments for individuals suffering from demoralization, death anxiety, and existential distress. Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy employs psilocybin-containing mushrooms or synthetic psilocybin grounded in indigenous traditions and within the context of a therapeutic mindset and environment ("set and setting") to achieve altered states of consciousness that promote healing and psychospiritual growth while reducing suffering. Current research evidence suggests that this form of therapy could serve as a safe and effective therapeutic tool for such patients.
This presentation will describe a case series of patients with advanced cancer who received physician-supervised home-based psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in Montreal, Canada. Our experience postulates the safety and efficacy of this laborious treatment process. By executing this clinical practice in the public healthcare system of Quebec for the first time, we have made an attempt to provide equitable access to these clinical therapies. Having performed these treatments outside the context of clinical trials, we have been able to tailor the therapeutic frame and treatment approach to a more patient-centric and culturally-informed manner. That being said, given the existing societal discrimination and stigma against this form of therapy, including by healthcare professionals, there remain further barriers to overcome in the equitable provision of care, especially to certain segments of the population. The authors will discuss these and potential solutions to addressing them
Into the looking glass on cultural and religious competent care: optimizing healthcare for Haredi individuals with mental illness
Get PDFPrevious research has shown that minority groups tend to underuse healthcare services. One community whose experiences remain particularly under-researched in the Western world is Haredi Jews- a diverse group of individuals committed to traditional Talmudic and Halakhah teachings and observances. This presentation aims to enhance participants' understanding of mental health-seeking behaviours and challenges faced by Haredi individuals. We conducted a qualitative study that involved in-depth interviews with 24 adults who identified as Haredi and used mental health services, as well as informal consultations with local rabbis and community leaders. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis techniques. Analysis revealed several important themes, including: (1) Strength of religious practices, community, and relationship with God as a factor determining mental well-being. (2) Implications of devotion to religion within the patient-physician encounter. (3) Stigma and acknowledged lack of awareness surrounding mental health in Haredi communities. These themes will be explored in the presentation, which will aim to bring light to participants’ lived experiences. We hope to address the proverbial "elephant in the room" often ignored or overlooked, as encountered by Haredi community members and their interactions with the healthcare system. We will present the unique strengths and challenges related to mental health encountered by Haredi Jews in our study, while discussing potential measures that can produce better health outcomes and culturally sensitive care for Haredi individuals.  
Exploring effective learning sessions to enhance self-awareness and promote interest in self-care among medical professionals
Get PDFBackground
Self-awareness among medical professionals is becoming more important. However, it is difficult to practice self-awareness unless consciously. We held in-hospital learning sessions to enhance self-awareness and to support self-care of medical professionals. The session introduced mindfulness, meditation, and self-care from the perspectives of "psychological safety" and "end-of-life care."
Objective
To investigate the effects of sessions based on participants' reactions.
Methods
A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 128 medical professionals who participated in the sessions, and the free description was analyzed according to the qualitative coding procedure.
Results
As a result of analyzing the contents of 97 entries described in the free description of the questionnaire. Six categories were generated in the end: Stressful experience, Active practice of meditation, The need for self-care, Knowledge of mindfulness, Healing through narrative, Self-awareness through the learning session.
Discussion
Stressful experience about "psychological safety" and "end-of-life care" were narrated. We found that they are receptive to mindfulness, meditation, and self-care, and want to actively incorporate it. The experience of self-awareness was enhanced through the learning sessions. Introducing meditation, mindfulness, and self-care as methods of coping with specific stresses in clinical settings was effective in enhancing self-awareness among medical professionals.
 
“He told me my pain was in my head”: Testimonial injustice in patient-physician relationships
Get PDFWomen living with chronic pain are more likely than men to experience pain dismissal, receive nonspecific diagnostics, receive fewer follow-ups, have their condition undertreated, and be told that it results from a psychological condition. This is particularly concerning for adolescent girls living with scoliosis, who, given the progressive nature of their condition, require timely diagnosis to allow for less invasive treatment options to be explored. This population is also significantly more likely to have their condition progress to a curve angle where treatment such as bracing or spinal fusion surgery is required, both of which are associated with chronic pain. However, timely diagnosis depends on clinicians taking patients’ testimony regarding their health concerns seriously and investigating their claims.
This presentation will dive into the gender gap in care for adolescent girls living with chronic pain caused by scoliosis, focusing on their experiences of pain dismissal and its negative short and long-term effects. Leveraging the concept of intersectionality, the authors argue that adolescent girls may suffer a testimonial injustice when their pain is dismissed by clinicians.
This presentation will also explore gender-specific peer support groups as a possible mitigating factor to testimonial injustice and other negative outcomes from chronic pain and pain dismissal. The researchers interviewed members from scoliosis peer support group Curvy Girls using open-ended questions, gathering narrative data about their experiences that was subsequently analyzed using an applied philosophical hermeneutics approach, along with intersectionality and testimonial injustice as part of their framework
Surrounded by text: the meaning of health represented through the texts of life. An interpretative process
Get PDFOur omnipresent reflective worlds invite interpretation through the incalculability and types of text that surrounds us during our daily lives. We as human beings have no choice but to acknowledge this bombardment of texts as our obligatory and oblivious day-to-day engagements or be in denial of them because, as their meaning has not become relevant and interpreted within our lives.
These texts of life will continue to appear regardless of whether through an interpersonal encounter within our taken-for-granted lives, as researcher through the recounting of a research a research participant’s lived experience of something, or of a form of “art” that uniquely somehow “speaks to us”. Patients, clinicians, and researchers are offered windows, images, narratives, metaphors, or other creative expression into the complex experiences that can be explored and interpreted to help understanding complex health conditions. Chronic pain and cancer an example of these but the text associated with these transcend their medicalization to include the ontological pain associated with the day-to-day distress these can create.
This presentation offers the personal and academic reflections as a researcher and a person who lives with chronic pain and is currently undergoing a second round of chemotherapy for cancer. By finding a common ground of understanding the clinical and life experiences of living with chronic health conditions becomes mutually more accessible and may enhance the treatment of the person. The first step it to help create awareness that text and interpretation skills can benefit the clinician, the patient, and researchers