Online sleep therapy included in mandatory health care coverage
The KSM Clinic for Sleep Medicine can now offer its online sleep therapy KSM SOMNET to all German-speaking interested parties in Switzerland. The therapy has also been included in the mandatory health care insurance (OKP).
In Switzerland, an estimated 300,000 - 800,000 people suffer from chronic insomnia. Only about one percent of those affected receive cognitive behavioral therapy. Thus, all others do not receive the medical care that is considered the gold standard by many experts today. Yet diseases associated with insomnia or other sleep disorders also pose a risk to occupational safety, as we have recently seen on this place have reported.
Unique online sleep therapy in Switzerland
Since 2010, the Clinic for Sleep Medicine (KSM) in Bad Zurzach and Lucerne has developed an online therapy for chronic insomnia, i.e. problems falling asleep and staying asleep, under the brand name KSM SOMNET. Here, KSM sleep experts guide clients online through a cognitive behavioral therapy. The difference to face-to-face therapy is obvious: users do not come to the clinic for a therapy session, but work through several therapy modules on their PC or tablet under the guidance of an online therapist. As a rule, a therapy session lasts eight to twelve weeks. The vision of a therapy that is not tied to a specific time or place and is personally supervised by a therapist has thus been realized - in contrast to many other offers.
A milestone
The inclusion of the service "Internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapeutic treatment of insomnia" in Annex 1 of the Nursing Benefits Ordinance as of Jan. 1, 2017, represents a true milestone for the KSM Clinic for Sleep Medicine, according to a statement. The clinic is taking this as an opportunity to further expand its offering of this online sleep therapy. With the expansion of the team of therapists, a software relaunch, the publication of a dedicated information website www.ksm-somnet.ch and the registration of the KSM SOMNET trademark in the Swiss trademark register, the offer is now well positioned to meet the expected demand, the clinic added.
