World Homoeopathy Day: Taking homoeopathy to the people
Students from Durban University of Technoloy offer free homoeopathy consultations at several clinics. This week we visit one of their clinics run at the Denis Hurley Centre to find out more.
World Homoeopathy Day is observed every year on April 10 to commemorate the birthday of Dr Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. In a three-week series, we will discover how homoeopathy works. This week we chat to experts in the field from DUT for a crash course in homeopathy 101.
STUDENTS from Durban University of Technology visit the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC) in Durban’s CBD twice a week to run a free homoeopathy clinic for the community. This is one of several clinics that students run, including one at Bellhaven Clinic in Greyville and a mobile clinic that caters to residents of Kenneth Gardens in Umbilo.
For fifth year homoeopathy students Pretty Ngcobo, Sakhiwo Khanyile and Marizel Hendriks, working at DHC has been eye-opening. They offer their expertise to anyone in need of medical assistance, including members of Durban’s homeless community and refugees from other countries.
“We have treated people from all walks of life. It’s interesting working with people who might be afraid to see a doctor because they are refugees or struggling with substance abuse,” said Hendriks.
Earning patients’ trust has been crucial for the homoeopathy students who need to ask a wide range of questions to diagnose their patients.
“Working with the homeless is challenging. They will come to us with a physical problem, but we need to dig to find out about emotional problems or stress,” said Ngcobo.
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Emotional and environmental triggers and stresses inform the homoeopath as they treat the individual, not just the disease.
“We don’t prescribe the same remedy to each patient because we deal with the law of individualism. If two patients have a headache, I won’t treat the headache with the same remedy,” explained Ngcobo.
While the process prompts patients to learn more about themselves, it has also been eye-opening for Khanyile.
“I learned that patients were not taking drugs because they wanted to. There were certain circumstances that led them to drug use. It helped me to understand them better and reduce judgement. I learnt that most of them want to make the change,” he said.
As the students understand their patients’ world better, they are better able to treat them.
“We saw one patient successfully quit substance use. Now, he comes to me as a homoeopath and tells me about all the stresses he has in life. I am wondering how I am going to be able to help this patient stay off substances. There is a level of emotional turmoil in treating patients like this,” said Hendriks.
For many homeless people, this is the first time anyone has asked them how they feel.
“Homeopaths sit and listen – we don’t just want to know that life is stressful, we want to know what about life is stressing the patient out. A lot of our questioning helps people to articulate the problems they are facing. That alone brings healing,” said Hendriks.
“If a patient can’t sleep, an allopathic doctor may prescribe sleeping tablets or refer them to a counsellor. A homoeopath will listen and treat the patient,” added Ngcobo.
Where homoeopathy and allopathy meet
Homoeopaths also work alongside allopathic doctors to ensure patients well-being.
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“With some diseases, we work in conjunction with an allopathic doctor, In the case of a toothache, we would refer a patient to a dentist,” said Khanyile.
Patient’s health is the utmost priority, added Hendriks.
“We are not going to advise our patient to stop using their insulin, for example. We will prescribe our remedies in conjunction with the insulin and then hopefully come to a stage where the disease is progressing in a way that the patient needs less insulin. There are certain diseases that can’t be cured, but we can lessen the extent of the disease or slow the progression of the disease,”she explained.
“We never advise a patient to stop medication for a chronic disease,” added Ngcobo.
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