Developments

The SSR Recreation Sector Project, the first one to promote the SSR Programme as the New Generation of Stress Management, unfolds since March 2007. The SSR Programme is going to be launched on the market by selected fitness & wellness providers from Belgrade, Serbia, in September.

SSR 007: The Licence to Get Rid of Stress!

 




SSR BACKGROUND

 
1. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
2. Health Promotion Clinics Concept
3. Brian Potter
4. Predrag Stankovic
5. SSR Programme Origin
6. Ongoing Reform of the UK’s National Health Service
7. Integrated Healthcare
8. SSR Programme – Innovative Approaches


1.  His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales

Adverse financial status in the British government-funded health care system by the end of the eighties prompted their leading experts to search for additional ways of improving the health of the nation. What had to be faced in a more comprehensive way included the challenges of rationalising the Service, of improving the health care standards and cost-effectiveness, as well as of giving the patients more space to express their needs and make choices – when it comes to determining the course of their treatment. An important drive to adopt a more holistic approach to health care came from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who was President of the British Medical Association at the time.

2.  Health Promotion Clinics Concept

One of the results of the above-mentioned endeavours was the Health Promotion Clinics (HPC) concept. It was labelled as one of the best innovations of the General Practitioners’ New Contract introduced in April 1990. The concept itself suggests a shift from treatment of diseases to prevention of illnesses by earlier intervention and health education. GPs are encouraged and financed by NHS to use the services of the complementary medicine (CM) therapists, who are not required to have medical or paramedical background. Most often, the complementary practitioners are engaged in the fields of: stress reduction, cancer support, dietary advice, reduction of tranquillisers, menopause, giving up smoking, and hypertension.

Success rate of some complementary therapies exceeds 70 percent and it is manifested as follows:
   the patients’ health improves as subjectively reported by the patients,
   due to improvements in health status, they reduce the call on their GP’s time – leaving them more time for       patients with acute problems, and
   they use less medication, particularly pain killers, tranquillisers, and sleeping tablets, making significant     savings in  the practice’s budget. (These are also tightly connected to the leading occupational health     hazards; namely: work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders.)


3.  Brian Potter

Brian was a Senior Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health at the time, and he worked to implement the HPC concept.


4.  Predrag Stankovic

Predrag was a complementary practitioner in London at the time, contributing to good track record of CM and growing public support to this kind of health promotion and treatment options.


5. SSR Programme Origin

Predrag left UK in 1991 and, after some time, started promoting CM and the HPC concept in Belgrade, Serbia. He began with Serbian Medical Association in 1992, lectured for British Council in 1993, run courses, became health correspondent in several magazines, etc.

It was a very difficult environment to work in for many a reason. At some point, Predrag had to start looking for new modalities of work, more appropriate for the circumstances in Serbia, needs and mentality of people. He developed a stress management programme by summer 1999.

The Prevention and Rehabilitation Programme for Stress-Related Disorders was based on the best results of complementary medicine practice within the British health care system, and extensive personal experience as a complementary therapist since 1988. The Programme was presented to the public and international scientific audience/establishments at the First International Conference on Environmental Recovery of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, September 27-30, 2001, within the session titled Psychosomatic and Social Consequences (of the previous decade). The Programme received very good unofficial reviews at the Conference; as the most comprehensive elaboration of events that took place and the existing consequences and problems.

Brian came to Belgrade to manage an EU funded healthcare reform project in December 2001. Met with Predrag in January 2002. They started to collaborate on Predrag’s project in March 2002. The Synergetic Stress Relief Programme was born in spring 2004.


6.  Ongoing Reform of the UK’s National Health Service

Good track record of CM practice within NHS initiated profound changes in understanding the health and illness challenges. Several related trends have run in parallel as CM’s credibility has grown: an increased interest in lifestyle change; concern about informed choice and health promotion; greater endorsement of self-care; and low-technology treatments.

A survey from 2004 indicated that one in ten of the UK population uses complementary health care with the majority using it in addition to conventional care. As many as 90% of the users access it outside of the NHS, mainly middle and professional classes.

Over 50% of GPs in the UK are already making complementary healthcare available to their patients. Also 75% of the population would choose complementary approaches if it were available on the NHS.

Complementary healthcare services are being increasingly accessed via NHS primary care, a trend that is likely to increase as primary care trusts proceed to establish NHS services more locally making them patient-centred, participative and primary care based.

Source: The Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Health


7. Integrated Healthcare

The process of modernisation in the NHS at the beginning of the millennium has resulted in significant changes in the way that primary care may be commissioned and delivered. One of the key terms for ongoing changes is integrated healthcare. This concept is promoted and supported in many ways by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and his Foundation for Integrated Health.

Integrated healthcare is the combined provision of complementary and conventional approaches to health, bringing together body, mind and spirit and encompassing the whole person. Integrated healthcare focuses on health and healing rather than disease and treatment and treats each human being as an individual with many dimensions, whilst acknowledging the high level of responsibility individuals have for their own health.

In order to facilitate better and easier integration many of the complementary medicine professions are in the process of obtaining statutory regulation or developing voluntary self-regulation, since late nineties. In simple terms, different CM therapies separately approach conventional healthcare for integration.

Source: The Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Health


8.  SSR Programme – Innovative Approaches

When Predrag started developing more appropriate approaches in his work there was no looking back, and he was not aware of new developments in UK regarding integrated healthcare concept, until summer 2004. By that time, the SSR Programme was already born.

The essential difference from UK developments in the field of CM is that Predrag was selecting and integrating CM approaches themselves. These had to be non-invasive, primarily preventive, culturally/socially acceptable for majority of people in Serbia, and very effective in dealing with stress-related issues.

Another specific feature in approach was that Predrag followed the World Health Organisation recommendation on identifying cost-effective interventions outside the health sector, which could lead to improved health outcomes.

These differences in approach and other innovations made the SSR Programme so distinctive – a New Generation of Stress Management. They also left it outside of integrated healthcare boundaries, temporarily, though. Following Brian’s initiative, Predrag prepared grounds for collaboration with a Primary Health Centre in Belgrade (provides services to 150.000 people) in summer 2006. As soon as convenient, 10 doctors and 10 nurses will attend a two month SSR Foundation Course – as health & safety at work measure; a patient referral protocol is being developed, as well as in-house monitoring & evaluation (based on existing SSR) procedures.


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© 2007 Brian Potter and Predrag Stankovic

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