We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
Would you like to know what your stay at Vall d'Hebron will be like? Here you will find all the information.
The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
During COVID-19 confinement, staying active is essential to preserve both physical and mental health. Regular exercise helps prevent disease, improves mood, and avoids the physical decline associated with prolonged inactivity.
Why is it important to stay active during confinement?
Establishing a regular physical exercise routine brings both physical and psychological benefits:
What type of physical exercise can be done at home to stay fit?
According to international guidelines, adults aged 18 to 64 are recommended to perform 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week, in sessions of at least 10 minutes. It is also beneficial to include muscle-strengthening activities two to three times per week.
For people over 65, it is additionally recommended to include proprioception and balance exercises, which help prevent falls.
Home exercise guide
The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service joins the #stayathome initiatives by proposing a general program to help prevent the physical deconditioning that may result from confinement due to SARS-CoV-2.
It is important to remember:
Exercises must be adapted to each person’s physical condition.
If an exercise causes discomfort or is not well tolerated, it should not be performed.
This program is not recommended for individuals with recent musculoskeletal injuries, cardiopulmonary conditions, or other serious organic diseases.
Required equipment:
Using a mobile phone responsibly involves controlling screen time, prioritizing real-life tasks and activities, limiting children’s exposure, and disconnecting before bedtime. These habits help prevent distractions, stress, and sleep difficulties.
On a mobile phone, we can centralize our calendar, contacts, clock, alarm, email, car navigation, favorite TV series, access to social media, and a wide range of products and services, which can lead us to spend excessive time on the device. Are you aware of how much time you spend on it? Do you check it whenever you want, or do you also do so unconsciously? Here are some tips to help you use it more appropriately.
Be aware of the time you spend on your mobile phone. Set a specific time to start using it and establish a maximum usage limit for the day. One way to reduce phone-checking time is to set an alarm to regulate how often you check the device (for example, every 30 minutes).
The phone offers many leisure possibilities: TV series, shopping, video games... If you feel that you spend a lot of time interacting with these kinds of apps and that you do it more out of need than enjoyment, it may mean you are losing control and engaging in risky behavior.
Social media is a major distraction. Avoid accessing social networks until you have finished your tasks or while eating. Disable push notifications for as many apps as possible to prevent frequent distractions.
Avoid letting your children spend long hours on your mobile phone. Children under 2 years old should not have contact with mobile phones or other screens.
Especially if you have trouble falling asleep, stop using your mobile phone at least 30 minutes before going to bed and turn it off at night.
Confinement due to COVID-19 can disrupt daily routines and impact psychological well-being. Maintaining routines, limiting information overload, managing emotions, and staying connected with others help reduce stress, anxiety, and feelings of isolation.
In critical moments, when life habits are disrupted, people may have to face situations of stress and anxiety due to the helplessness and/or frustration caused by the circumstances. In this context, the American psychologist Peter Levine, creator of Somatic Experiencing® therapy, proposes:
Along these lines, S. E. Hobfoll, an expert in humanitarian aid after major catastrophes, established five criteria to promote in such situations, synthesizing the population’s needs: a sense of safety and self-efficacy (individual and collective), calm and control, connectivity between people, and hope.
Beyond the measures needed to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, it is important to carry out a series of actions to maintain psychological well-being.
Measures such as social distancing and visit restrictions can lead to social isolation, especially among older people who live alone. Therefore, it is important, even at a distance, to communicate and socialize with friends and family using available technology and tools, such as mobile devices, social networks, video calls, or WhatsApp.
If you know people who do not know how to use these tools, you can help them learn so they can stay connected with society. For example, you can draw instructions or make a video on your screen explaining step by step how to use them.
Communication and collaboration with others are highly positive, according to past experiences studied during critical moments, and they help prevent isolation, which can negatively affect our psychological health.
It is useful to plan daily activities so that, despite the exceptional nature of the situation, there are routines and daily habits. Some options for younger children include:
It is also important to engage in physical exercise, such as stretching or walking in a confined space, even if it is limited.
If you have elderly neighbors who are part of the high-risk population for COVID-19, you can offer your help, for example, by doing their grocery shopping. These actions are highly positive for people and also help ensure strict isolation measures for this group.
Overexposure to information related to COVID-19 increases stress levels and harms mental health. Therefore, moderate access to news is recommended to stay informed, along with engaging in other activities such as reading a book, watching a movie, or playing a game, avoiding receiving more information than necessary.
Nervousness, anxiety, irritability, a constant sense of danger, insomnia, and difficulty controlling worries or stopping thoughts about the illness are some of the symptoms that a situation like the current one can generate. To minimize them, you can:
Most anxiety responses are considered normal, but it is important to be alert to symptoms such as:
If one or more of these symptoms occur, anxiety is affecting daily activities, and it is necessary to consult a specialist to seek strategies to modulate these cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses.
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