PatientsEngage General Community

Dr Avinash De Sousa, consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, talks about how bereavement counselling has become crucial in the times of Covid -19 to deal with sudden deaths and inability to mourn satisfactorily. In times of the Covid pandemic, terms like grief therapy and bereavement counselling have gained significance. Could you tell us a little bit about these concepts? Grief Therapy is a form of therapy which is administered by means of counselling or psychotherapy to an individual who…

Healthy donors are encouraged to continue donating blood despite pandemic because there are still patients in hospitals in need of blood transfusions and blood components, maintains Dr Lalit Dhantole, Consultant/Head Transfusion Medicine, Fortis Hospitals Mumbai The Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected lives in all sectors. How have blood banks been impacted? As far as blood donation is concerned, blood donors are the backbone of effective blood transfusion services. Lockdown due to Covid-19…

It is crucial to root out stigma and discriminatory behaviour linked to coronavirus disease and death and restore emotional connection and compassion to build a stronger community to fight the crisis together, writes psychotherapist H'vovi Bhagwagar. What happens to us when we watch a movie of the “Pre-COVID times” where people are jostling in a metro, or crowding supermarkets or hugging to greet each other? Doesn’t our brain automatically say, “Hey that’s wrong!” What earlier seemed so natural…

Running out of ideas on what to cook? Here are 5 easy to cook one pot meals or mid day snacks that are nutrititious and tasty. By Dietician Shruti Hirlekar   Mughalai Groundnut bhel Ingredients Groundnuts (½ cup or 28 grams) soaked and steamed Finely chopped spinach/palak (1 cup) Kidney beans or rajma (1/4 cup) soaked and steamed Puffed rice (1 cup) Rice flakes  (1/2 cup) Green chutney  as per taste Dates Chutney as per taste Salt as per taste. Directions Mix all…

We decided to find out what the nurses wanted - from patients, and from their doctor colleagues. We asked some of these hard-working professionals the following questions: What do nurses want from patients? What do nurses want from doctors? A thought for World health day! Nurse Priyanka Girkar Show respect and encourage participation. As a nurse, I can say that as more and more patients come to the door, doctors are pressuring you. They should also understand the pressure on the nurse. Nurses…

Telemedicine or e-medicine guidelines were finally passed in India last month. What does this mean for Indian patients and families? Swati Agrawal, a diversity and inclusion advocate has created this primer for us to understand the guidelines.  With the onslaught of COVID19, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare finally passed the Telemedicine Guidelines that were proposed nearly a decade ago. Due to social distancing and COVID19, reaching out to medical professionals and availing…

Shikha Aleya, who has dealt with anxiety, shares her experience of accepting the changed scenario due to Covid-19, her self-care routines and coping strategies that address the various aspects that matter to her.  I understand anxiety having worked through it over decades. First I suggest we accept that a certain degree of anxiety has its place in this scheme of things. What is that degree? To the extent that you are okay with it, understand it and are holding space for yourself. I choose…

Covid 19 has spread its fangs across more than 199 countries with casualties mounting by the hour. India is battling it out too by announcing a 21 day complete lockdown. But how is this lockdown affecting the senior citizens and people with disabilities? Moyna Sen takes a look. The lockdown in India for three weeks on account of the Covid 19 crisis: the world over is bound to have far reaching consequences on various fronts, which we cannot even begin to assess because this is an unprecedented…

People with chronic conditions are having unique challenges during this period of lockdown. PatientsEngage is committed to sharing the right information on managing chronic conditions. We have therefore started a series of webinars with doctors, health experts and empowered patients to address the key concerns.  Tune in to our webinars with health experts answering key concerns. These will be streamed on our Facebook page What we have scheduled so far is: Friday 27th March 2020 5pm…

As we move into varying degrees of home quarantine, stay home setting and lockdown, Shital Raval compiles a list of tips for handling this situation. As psychotherapist H'vovi Bhagwagar said in the webinar (video link below), its important to start with Acceptance of the situation.  The word “quarantine” first came into place during the Plague epidemic in Italy. But to be clear, quarantine and isolation are two different and separate things. Quarantine means confinement of individuals who…