MEERUT: A couple of months ago, Lucknow’s Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, a Covid-19 facility, conducted an experiment on the advice of a young college professor. In its 25 private wards each fitted with a television, patients were shown only sports channels.
The results were encouraging. According to the hospital authorities, there was a marked improvement in the behaviour of 85% of patients, which in fact, “contributed to the strengthening of their morale to fight the pandemic”.
Madhulika Singh, vice-chairperson of Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, said, “There is no denying the fact that the experiment had a considerable amount of positive impact on our Covid-19 L1 and L2 patients, admitted in our private wards. It was actually the need of the hour to divert their attention to something energetic and positive.
Sports activities on any day bring positive vibes. In fact, we replicated this model in our Barabanki medical facility, too.”
A similar impact was felt in Ghaziabad hospitals as well. Speaking to TOI, a Ghaziabad resident, who was treated in one of the local hospitals that adopted the experiment, said, “Becoming Covid positive has a huge psychological impact on any individual. With so much negativity propagated around this disease worldwide, it seems you’ll never come out of it. And I too became a victim of that mindset. In fact, I found watching sports all the time quite resilient. It helped me to stay positive.”
The novel approach is a brainchild of 28-year-old Kanishka Pandey, head of Sports Research Centre at a private college in Ghaziabad. Pandey is a former state level badminton player himself.
He had adopted a village in Muzaffarnagar in February this year to promote ‘Sports Literacy‘ among rural children, but a month later Covid-19 pandemic struck and successive lockdowns put a spanner in all his endeavours.
Soon enough, Pandey turned his attention towards lessening the negative impact of pandemic on patients’ mental health and suggested a few hospitals to undergo what he termed as “indirect sports therapy”.
“By sports therapy we generally mean prevention and cure of injuries caused by sports activity. But, sports has a powerful impact on the psyche of sports lovers, too. Everyone of us has felt that adrenaline rush when we watch our favourite sport. There is a feeling of positivity and excitement and I always wondered why it cannot be used as a therapy to treat patients and then came Covid-19. A few of the hospitals I approached liked my idea and incorporated it on a pilot basis. Indeed, results were encouraging,” said Pandey on whose PIL in 2018, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the University Grants Commission (UGC), NCERT and Sports Authority of India seeking their response on whether sports could be treated as part of fundamental rights.
Pandey had contended that inculcating sports values among children and young people would contribute to removal of social ills, among other things.
UP’s Director General Medical Education Dr KK Gupta is quite positive on the prospects of introducing the concept in the state once it is tried and tested, and gets the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) nod.
“The concept is good and it is a known fact that sports has therapeutic values and I feel indirect sports therapy does have a positive impact on Covid patients in reduction of fear and anxiety. We can think of incorporating the concept across the state once we have a go-ahead from ICMR after formal trials are conducted,” he said.