Blog
  |
Wednesday May 27, 2020
Compassionate Care for Frontline Healthcare Workers During the Covid-19 Crisis in Louisville, Kentucky
posted by Oliver H. Barber, Jr.
Tags: In the news
The Resiliency Project
Compassionate Care for Frontline Healthcare Workers During the Covid-19 Crisis in Louisville, Kentucky
Jeffrey C. Russell, DOM, L.Ac
916 Clarks Lane Louisville, KY 40217
(508) 237-3949
bluechimed@gmail.com
OVERVIEW
We are pleased to submit this proposal to help our community (Louisville, KY) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our project supports the health and well-being of our city’s frontline healthcare providers during this crisis. We will provide Chinese Herbal formulas that build basic health resiliency for frontline workers. This support is free to program participants.
Frontline healthcare providers and support staff in hospitals, primary care clinics and medical offices are encountering significant risk of life-threatening viral exposure as they perform their daily duties. They also face potentially traumatic levels of stress and pronounced fatigue due to persistent and growing concerns for the survival of their patients, colleagues, families, and selves.
In the country overall, our healthcare system is at a near-catastrophic breaking-point as evidenced by reports from epidemic ‘hot spots’. To date, there are no evidence-based treatment protocols to rely upon and no vaccine. The future view from the frontlines is a difficult one to predict or prepare for. Our frontline providers are in dire need of support on many fronts—from basic personal protection equipment to physical and mental health resiliency.
We are fortunate to learn from the hard-fought efforts of those who have worked on the frontlines of this pandemic in other parts of the world, particularly in Wuhan, China. That experience greatly informs us and this project.
WHY CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE NOW
Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) is a well-established method for aiding and building health. In risk benefit analysis, its safety quotient consistently shows low risk/high benefit. Our project uses Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) which has a long tradition and is well-documented in its positive effects.
CHM has been a state-mandated modality for the treatment of the various stages of COVID-19 in the hospitals of Wuhan and other cities in China. CHM has been an integral part of China’s containment of COVID-19. It has been used to benefit in clinical contexts with and without western allopathic treatments including drug therapy and support technology such as medical imaging and medical respiratory devices.
Essentially, The Resiliency Project will provide our frontline healthcare workers an internal level of ‘personal protection equipment’ (PPE)--immune enhancing herbal medicine to mitigate their profound and repeated risk of viral exposure. Notably, the CHM formulas offered by this project also contain strong anti-viral ingredients.
NOTE: Given the interconnectedness of our world, this aid would also greatly benefit other vulnerable populations in our community such as the homeless, those delivering support services to others in need and to the community at large--grocery store workers, postal workers, police, etc. This crisis highlights the interdependence of all individuals in our community. We align ourselves wholeheartedly with the message of our Governor Andy Beshear at this time—that we can and must get through this and get through this together.
RESILIENCY PACKAGES Each participant in The Resiliency Project will receive recurring 30-day supplies (free of charge) of CHM formulas. Based on whether a participant is asymptomatic or experiencing symptoms, there is an adjusted recommendation for the combinations of herbs. These herbal protocols align with what we call in CHM, the various stages of Covid-19. These are:
1. Asymptomatic Stage
2. Early Stage: signs and symptoms that do not require hospitalization
3. Hospitalization
4. Recovery
Participants who are in the asymptomatic stage will receive formulas that include the following Chinese herbs:
• Huang Qi (radix astragali) • Bai Zhu (rhizoma atractylodis)
• Fang Feng (radix saposhnikoviae)
• Mian Ma Guang Zhong (rhizoma dryopteris)
• Jin Yin Hua (Flos Lonicerae japonica)
• Chen Pi (pericarpium kitri reticulatae)
• Hou Xiang (herba agastache)
We are not reinventing the wheel. We are focusing on tried, true and tested formulaic blends of herbal medicine and supplements used in China for more than three months. More than 85% of patients with the coronavirus in China, or approximately 60,000 people received herbal treatment alone or in combination with western medicine depending of the availability of both. this date was as of late February 2020. Numbers are still being tallied. It is both inconceivable and impossible to track the number of asymptomatic people that received these measures or took these formulas at home based on public-health announcements.
COSTS AND FUNDING OF THE RESILIENCY PROJECT
• Our project is seeking funding and will operate at no cost to participants and no profit to project staff.
• This is a non-profit venture. Due to the emergent community crisis, nonprofit status has just begun to be pursued. At this time, this project will rely upon a local and trusted attorney, Oliver H. Barber, Jr., to supervise funding escrow, and regular accounting and reporting of activity to sponsors and all stakeholders. Mr. Barber provides these services pro bono.
• Our funding will go to the costs of herbal ingredients, minimal packaging, and delivery services.
• Some administrative hours for ordering supplies, creating Resiliency Packages, communicating with potential and active participants and delivery to them may be billed.
• The project duration is ideally until the pandemic is contained and those participants in need, including those in recovery, have been aided.
• The project scope and duration are dependent upon funding.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP
Sponsorship Our project depends upon financial sponsorship.
Our estimates show we can support a participant for approximately $5 per day for basic supplies. Or, we can serve 1000 participants for 30 days for $180,000-$200,000 per month.
To make a financial contribution, or to inquire further about our project, please contact Jeffrey C. Russell at bluechimed@gmail.com or (508) 237-3939.
Other Support To lend other aid or assist in any way in facilitating our project during the Covid-19 pandemic, please contact Jeffrey C. Russell at bluechimed@gmail.com or (508) 237-3949.
OUR PROJECT STAFF
Jeffrey C. Russell, DOM, L.Ac
Jeffrey C. Russell has been in private Chinese Medicine practice in the Greater Louisville area since 2003. He works in an integrative approach. Board-certified in Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture at national and state levels, Jeffrey completed a four-year Master of Science degree in Chinese Medicine at the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Science in Oakland, CA in 2001.
Advanced studies were done with Dr. Richard Tan in clinical applications, with internationally-acclaimed practitioner Dr. Wei-Yen Chang, one of the foremost practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine in the United States, as well as with Dr. Young Wei-jia and Dr. Susan Johnson L.Ac., both pioneers in bringing the Master Tung lineage of acupuncture to the United States, and Dr. Li-Chung Huang of China in Auricular Medicine diagnosis.
Shelley D. Ochs, PhD, DOMi
Shelly Ochs is a Louisville native and practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, translator of modern and classical Chinese medical texts, and scholar specializing in the cultural and intellectual history of medicine in early China. She regularly writes articles on Chinese medicine for both academic and clinical journals. She is currently in Chinese medical practice in Beijing, China.
Dr. Ochs completed her MS in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Bilingual Program of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco in 2000, and her PhD in the History of Chinese Medicine and Chinese Literature at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in 2013 in Beijing, China.
Chris Stewart, MD
Chris Stewart is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. He has practiced in the field of addiction psychiatry for the past 19 years.
Dr. Stewart is board certified in general psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, addiction medicine, consultation-liaison psychiatry and is a certified group psychotherapist with the International Board for Group Psychotherapy. He has published research on the difficulties of evaluation and assessment of psychiatric disorders in addiction, and the relationship between psychological trauma and addictive disorders.
Through consultation-liaison psychiatry, he seeks to understand the intersection between mental and physical illness. Mindful of the historical and artificially created separation between body and mind in western practices, he is informed by the substantial movement in the past several decades to integrate mind and body and the increased interest in alternative medical practices such as from eastern traditions. In his approach to the treatment of his patients, Dr. Stewart uses available information to best integrate other healthcare traditions while maintaining the integrity of the doctor/patient relationship as understood in traditional western medicine.
Mr. Barber has maintained a law practice in Louisville for over 30 years. His work has included business law, civil rights, family law and lobbying. He has won numerous verdicts that have resulted in better care for the disabled, improved conditions for prisoners, and legal protection for youth accused of committing crimes. In the boardroom, he has advised corporations, government agencies and non-profit organizations. Mr. Barber was instrumental in pioneering legislation for acupuncture and Chinese Medicine in the state of Kentucky, working closely with Jeffrey C. Russell and Shelley Ochs. He is a graduate of Bellarmine College and Boston College.
Melissa Stewart MS, CSW, SEP, C-IAYT
Melissa Stewart lives and works in Louisville. She is a clinical social worker, board-certified speech language pathologist, certified yoga therapist, and certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). She has advanced training in the use of Somatic Touch Work.
Working in the area of trauma for over twenty years, Ms. Stewart seeks to activate the inherent wisdom of the body in healing stress, depression, anxiety, trauma, and relationship conflicts. Her approach diverges from traditional therapy that engages the mind through talking and story-telling. It recognizes the nervous system’s role in registering our response to life events, exploring the information contained in the body and supporting choices that create more ease, allowing the freedom to live a fuller version of ourselves.
Marie Doutaz, MA
Marie Doutaz is a retired psychotherapist in Louisville. Her training included trauma-focused therapies, expressive therapies, domestic violence intervention and addiction counseling. Working in both private and public mental health settings, her specialties were developmental trauma, PTSD, addiction, and persistent mental illness. Additionally, she has done community-based work with the medically fragile homeless.
Marie’s interest in this project stems largely from the needs of the community to manage the stress and potential for trauma reactive to the pandemic--occurring both in the professional lives of those on the frontlines, as well as in the additional and unusual personal stressors experienced in the community during this crisis. Her clinical experiences have underscored the importance of total care in mental, emotional, and physical realms in the management of stress and trauma, and the building of overall resiliency and well-being.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Andersen, K.G., Rambaut, A., Lipkin, W.I. et al. The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. Nat Med (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0820-9
2. Chen T, Lu G. Interview II: Text Conversation with a Nurse from Huang Shi City, #5 Hospital near Wuhan: What people use at home and a diary of someone infected with COVID-19 https://www.elotus.org/sites/default/files/elotus_nurse_interview.pdf
3. Chen J, Huang D, Wang Medical Records from a Young and Brave Female Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor on Fighting the COVID-19. https://www.elotus.org/sites/default/files/covid_3_0.pdf
4. Chin J Integr Med. 2020 Apr;26(4):243-250. 2020 Feb https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/modes-of-transmission-of-virus-causing-covid-19-implications-for-ipc-precaution-recommendations
5. New York Times. March 13, 2020. China Bought the West Time. The West Squandered It. Why did so many countries watch the epidemic unfold for weeks as though it was none of their concern? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/opinion/china-response-china.html
6. Wuhan TCM Doctor Speaks Out from Ground Zero (Covid 19 - Coronavirus) https://youtu.be/RtpQEadezxQ
7. General Office of the National Health Commission Novel. 3/4/2020. Coronavirus Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (Provisional 7th Edition) https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/coronavirus-treatment-plan-7/
8. Newsweek. April 11, 2020. Young and Unafraid of The Coronavirus Pandemic? Good for You. Now Stop Killing People. https://www.newsweek.com/young-unafraid-coronavirus-pandemic-good-you-now-stop-killing-people-opinion-1491797
9. Ochs S, Avery-Garran, T. (translators). Official Treatment Protocols Include Chinese Herbal Medicine Formulas for Novel Coronavirus https://redwingbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/WeChat-post-formulas-Jan.-29-1.pdf
10. Global Times. 2/16/2020. Traditional Chinese medicine applied in over half of confirmed patients in coronavirus-hit Hubei: official. https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1179704.shtml
11. The Lantern Vol. 17:2a March 2020 COVID-19 Your Essential Guide file:///C:/Users/annie/AppData/Local/Packages/microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/Files/S0/0/Attachments/Lantern-COVID-online-issue_2[20299].pdf
12. Roser M, Ritchie H, Ortiz-Ospina E. 2/4/20. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – Statistics and Research https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
Comments
