German Program Supports People with Long Covid
Personal Guides to Empower, Educate, and Connect
Germany is home to an experiment with a program to have ‘personal pilots’ or guides provide support for people with Long Covid. This could be an effective way to keep people with post-covid issues better connected to the medical system, more educated about new developments, and more hopeful.
“Screening and assessment for post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS), guidance by personal pilots and support with individual digital trainings within intersectoral care: a study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.” BMC Infectious Diseases, 15 Aug 2022, PMID 35971066.
One of the goals of the study is ‘empowerment’ - the idea that patients should be provided with information to make choices about treatment options in a way that goes beyond the traditional (often rushed) office visit to a doctor. We started from a position of zero knowledge about Long Covid in 2020, and while we have learned a great deal, things are still complex and changing. Many people simply cannot be full time covid researchers and educators, while
This program is limited in size, and it is part of a study that is providing a variety of treatments and hoping to find which are effective. But this approach is encouraging in many ways. If a nurse or public health expert is available to people with Long Covid, those who wish can explore their options in a setting that improves the chances that they will find something that helps - and then stick with it.
This sort of thing isn’t entirely new - some insurance companies in the U.S. have this type of program for conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes. The idea is to have a person who acts as a coach, advocate, patient educator and supporter. People typically do better at moving towards health when there are social connections, when there is a community to support them.