Why Focus on Whole Health?
Focusing on the body, mind, and spirit improves wellness, well-being, and quality of life. We focus on whole health for the whole family and each of its members because families that include children with medical complexity (CMC) often experience significant stress, pain, fear, trauma, anxiety, and depression. Many of these children often endure long and frequent hospitalizations, painful and traumatic procedures, and scary discussions. Additionally, their caregivers and siblings are often stressed, scared, and exhausted.
Each member of this family can experience medical trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), toxic and chronic stress; and feelings of helplessness, loneliness, and desperation. Some of these families also live in high stress environments in which the children have Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) beyond their medical trauma.
Families are searching for help beyond medical treatments to support their minds, bodies, and spirits -- We know because we’ve been there. Our work supports the human spirit as we engage in the transpersonal dimensions of the human experience through the accompaniment we provide and the connections we make.
There are integrative care service providers available and interested in helping children and their caregivers in local communities. However, they are often not connected to a local hospital or the families that can benefit from their help. They also tend to be too expensive for many families, as most insurance companies do not yet cover them. Additionally, many medical facilities do not yet offer significant integrative care services or have an Integrative Medicine (IM) program.
We know what children with medical complexity and their caregivers go through. The medical and integrative care staff members, and other caregivers who collaborate with us want to relieve these children and their family members’ suffering, improve their quality of life, and make their life experience easier. We want to make integrative care services more accessible and an integral part of health care as part of our effort to improve the whole health and well-being of a family.
We believe in the importance of necessary medical procedures, and in the importance of integrative care services working alongside the standard medical practice and in an integrated way.
“Whole person health considers the whole person and the relationships among numerous factors, including biologic, environmental, behavioral, mental, and social factors, in determining health.”
“[Integrative health] emphasizes a patient-focused approach to health care and wellness – often including mental, emotional, functional, spiritual, social and community aspects – treating the whole person rather than, for instance, one organ system.”