The care of children at the quaternary children's hospital is focused in traditional Western medicine modalities of diagnosis, surgery, and medical treatment with pharmacologic medications. However, integrative health modalities, such as acupuncture, massage, Reiki, nutritional supplements, or oral complementary therapies (such as cannabinoids) have been increasingly discussed by our patients, especially during Palliative Care Consults. As healthcare demands high-quality cost-effective care and patients seek self-management strategies, integrative medicine has become more of an interest to patients, physicians, and administrators. The NIH has a dedicated center (National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health) for integrative therapies. Additionally, these treatments must meet evidence-based criteria for efficacy to be considered for reimbursement and in order for clinical settings to integrate them into the standard of care. The objective of this project is to examine feasibility, timing, appropriate measures, and provide the basis for future in-depth study of the outcomes of individual integrative symptom management strategies.
Hypotheses:
Children, adolescents, and young adults will be able to complete electronic self-report questionnaires and physical measures before and after integrative interventions, and monthly.
Caregivers will be able to complete electronic proxy questionnaires before and after integrative interventions, and monthly.
Integrative interventions will be associated with changes on the questionnaires and physical measures such as a decrease in frequency, severity, or level of interference with symptoms.
Participants will rate their satisfaction with integrative interventions positively.
