Stays in health resorts are most often motivated by the desire to improve health with the help of the natural healing potential of a spa town and the area of services developed around the sphere of psychophysical health. Promoting a healthy lifestyle increases the interest in visits in health resorts not only of sick people, but also of relatively healthy people. The wide range of recipients and a high demand for pro-health services mean that spa towns are not only sanatoriums, but also hotels and other facilities that include a health theme in their activities and thus fit into the healing nature of resorts. Health resorts do not stop at therapies based on the natural resources of the location, they complement their therapeutic methods with innovative health-promoting solutions to meet the competition and the patients’ requirements.
Spa base
Spas are places with natural healing properties, healing waters, gases and peloids, and a climate conducive to convalescence. The infrastructure that enables the use of the healing power of nature is then concentrated around these natural healing resources. In a health resort we will find sanatoriums, hospitals, clinics, natural medicine centres, as well as hotels and guesthouses with a pro-health profile.
Sanatorium stays provide round-the-clock medical and nursing care as well as health services dedicated to patients’ health conditions. Spa treatment in a sanatorium can be provided free of charge on the basis of a justified referral from a doctor or in a fully-paid form that enjoys no less interest due to the freedom to select the time and place of treatment or rehabilitation. The popularity of health tourism makes health resorts more and more competitively soliciting patients, expanding their offer with innovative and attractive rehabilitation, treatment and prophylactic services related to physical and mental health. Medical services intertwine with wellness and spa services. The spa offer is addressed to various age groups, and ever more often, spa treatments are used by stressed people, who expect to improve their mental health. It can therefore be noted that the spa’s offer is addressed both to clearly ill patients who wish to restore their health, and those who wish to preserve their health resources as long as possible through prophylaxis and rest in the spa.
Spa treatment
The tasks around which spa medicine focuses are: rehabilitation, consolidating the effects of hospital treatment, isolating from harmful environmental factors, increasing immunity and stimulating self-healing. These tasks are performed through various activities, depending on the therapeutic profile and the existing treatment base. Treatment in a spa is traditionally based on local healing water, gas and peloid deposits, as well as on climatic properties. Baths, crenotherapy (treatment with mineral water), inhalations and wraps are the basis of spa therapy, but a modern stay in a spa is not just a “trip to the waters”, as it used to be said in the past.
Patients between treatments wish to use additional services offered by spas. The attractiveness of the treatment base, the quality of services and the presence of amenities become the decisive reasons for selecting a spa facility. For commercial patients, the natural healing values are no longer a sufficient argument for staying in a given resort. The new trend determines the future of spas, which must expand their existing offer with new attractive solutions supporting recovery.
VR TierOne in a spa
The tasks assigned to spa medicine are more and more often carried out in a way that reaches beyond the therapeutic tradition.To meet the demand of their patients spas combine conventional and innovative solutions. Ever more often, the offer of spas is supplemented with stays intended for people with depression and for stress prevention. Restoring psychophysical balance can take place through the VR TierOne solution, which applies Virtual Reality technology and therapy that awakens the patients’ dormant strengths. VR TierOne therapeutic sessions are planned so that the patients can undergo the entire therapeutic cycle, consisting of eight sessions, during their stay (lasting two weeks on average). The role of the psyche on the road to health is significant. Patients decide to undergo treatment and rehabilitation outside their place of residence, not only to be able to benefit from the rich treatment offer accumulated in a resort, but also to break away from everyday reality, which can be difficult in a situation of incomplete health. Patients referred for spa treatment or rehabilitation after heart attacks, strokes, and recently also patients after COVID-19 require psychological support and motivation for long-term effort related to their recovery. Such support for the psyche is offered by VR TierOne therapy based on a unique combination of elements that bring health benefits, and in particular the effective Ericksonian psychotherapy provided in an attractive virtual form.
VR TierOne therapy is non-pharmacological, therefore it is safe for people on medications. The VR TierOne medical solution was designed to accelerate the patient’s recovery and facilitate the work of practitioners. Participation in a virtual therapy session is a pleasant experience, involving the patient, and at the same time requiring no effort or special preparation. The expected effects of using VR TierOne therapy are:
- improved mood,
- reduction of stress, depression and anxiety levels,
- increased motivation to exercise and rehabilitate,
- psychophysical relaxation,
- improvement of cognitive functions,
- stimulation of brain plasticity mechanisms,
- reduction of pain sensations.
The introduction of modern methods that support treatment is required from a spa to stand out and attract new patients. VR TierOne means not only guaranteed health effects, but also unforgettable moments that, when recalled as memories, will certainly encourage the more demanding patients who use therapy in sanatoriums, wellness centers and medical SPA hotels to visit the spa again.
