Sabrina B.* took action before it was too late. Despite suffering from burnout, she was able to organise treatment at a medical spa and is currently still in therapy. santé24’s new ANNA psychotherapeutic after-care service and SWICA’s Care Management are supporting her during this challenging time.
It usually hits you all at once – and Sabrina B. was in the thick of it. At first she didn’t know why she kept crying. This was happening several times a week. Of course, she was concerned about her mother’s health. But there was also the organisational challenge of working as a rhythmics teacher for five different employers at six different locations.
“I just didn’t know what was wrong with me,” the 53-year-old says, looking back. She tried to keep a stiff upper lip, and felt ashamed to talk to others about her situation. After meeting with friends, who encouraged her to stop kicking the problem down the road, she got in touch with her GP and took four weeks of sick leave.
Medical spa instead of inpatient treatment
Six months previously, Sabrina had had to end her holiday early and return home because her mother had been admitted to hospital. She organised care together with her siblings. She informed her employer about the new situation, and maintained a veneer of professionalism at work.
“No-one noticed anything”, she says soberly. But the new situation was so stressful that she started suffering from bleeding that then lasted two months. The stress of a possible curretage procedure added to her worries.
Despite being on sick leave, Sabrina didn’t want to sit around at home doing nothing. She called day hospitals and burnout clinics, put herself on waiting lists, and ultimately organised treatment at a medical spa before calling SWICA’s santé24 online practice. santé24 recommended SWICA’s Care Management service, and Care Manager Heike Maurer worked with Sabrina to carefully examine her situation. It soon became clear that Sabrina was no longer sick enough to require inpatient care following the medical spa treatment.
Because of this, Heike recommended ANNA – adaptive, low-threshold after-care. This is a new service offered by santé24 to support people with psychological problems or rehabilitation following a stay in hospital. It also helped Sabrina with admin, such as filling out the paperwork for various daily sickness allowance insurance providers.
From the clinic to everyday life
According to Birgit Schmid, Head of Psychology at santé24, there is scientific proof that around one in five people are readmitted to a clinic or medical spa within six months of inpatient treatment due to psychological complaints. This is not usually due to the quality of treatment provided by the clinic or medical spa, but rather the delicate transition back into everyday life.
And that’s where ANNA comes in. After leaving the clinic, patients receive six sessions of support by telephone or video call in order to help them find their feet again in everyday life and in their jobs. “The protected setting of the clinic disappears, and the pressures of everyday life are immediately felt again”, Birgit Schmid says from experience. “That’s why ANNA fills a gap in the provision of care.”
Recognising patterns and questioning beliefs
Following her medical spa treatment, Sabrina already had her first online appointment scheduled with Eliane Zangger, a psychologist working for santé24 who is also involved in providing the ANNA service. After being sceptical at first, Sabrina is now a convert. “Because the appointments were online, it was easy for me to integrate them into my daily life.” She liked her psychologist’s manner and her direct questions, which quickly brought the discussion to deep-rooted issues. Sabrina started examining her own patterns and entrenched beliefs.
Psychologist Eliane Zangger is fascinated by how technology can be used to support patients at santé24. “Our digital platform can make thoughts, feelings and relationships apparent. The visualisation of internal processes can help make connections more tangible. I have seen how these kinds of images and arrangements often also continue to work between sessions, and support the therapeutic process.”
ANNA provides everyday support once your clinic stay ends
santé24’s new adaptive, low-threshold after-care service (ANNA) helps with psychological issues or rehabilitation following inpatient treatment, in order to make reintegrating into everyday life less challenging. The period after being discharged is often a particularly delicate phase because the protected setting of the clinic disappears and the pressures of life resurface.
That’s why regular telephone or video calls are held for a six-month period. If they are no longer needed after that, a final consultation is held to reflect on the experience.
Premature reintegration
After three months, Sabrina wanted to return to work and struggled through for a while. But when her mother was readmitted to hospital, she quickly realised that she had reintegrated too soon. Care Manager Heike Maurer was on hand to support Sabrina as she faced the question of whether reintegration might no longer be possible and she would have to apply for a disability pension.
She decided against it, reduced her workload for nine months, and registered with a mental health practice, which finally had space after three months of waiting. But because she didn’t feel comfortable there, she got in touch with santé24 again, and ended up receiving psychotherapeutic care from Eliane Zangger again.
Two years later, Sabrina knows that it takes time to recover from burnout, and that things still aren’t the way they used to be. “I just need more breaks and a certain amount of calm.” She is grateful that her pupils’ parents and her colleagues have been very sympathetic to her situation during this time.
Dealing openly with her situation has taken away a potential extra source of stress. The psychotherapeutic support she received during santé24’s psychological/psychiatric consultation hours also helped her to cope with the challenges she was facing while still taking care of herself.
Her parents’ flat has now been sold, and they have found a place in a care home. “They are content”, Sabrina happily reports. Her workload has gone back to where it was and she knows what a journey it has been, but also that she can have faith in herself and her strength again after more than two years.
*Name known to the editors
