4 - Coping With Long-Term Conditions Flashcards
What is a chronic illness?
- Diseases that can only be controlled and not cured
- Long term
- More frequent in ageing population but not only older people who live with them
What is rheumatoid arthritis?
- Chronic, progressive, inflammatory, autoimmune disease
- Joint tenderness/swelling, pain, fatigue, muscle atrophy, anaemia, osteoporosis
- Usually arises age 40-60
What are some of the most common long-term conditions in the UK?
- Hypertension
- Depression
- Asthma
- Diabetes
- Coronary heart disease
- Chronic Kinsey disease
- Cancer
What is Parsons ‘sick role’?
- A theory of experience of illness
- Temporary, medically sanctioned, form of deviant behaviour
- Functional/mechanistic - excused their usual duties
- Doesn’t acknowledge role of the body
What are some limitations of the ‘sick role’ theory?
- Not all illnesses are temporary
- Doesn’t acknowledge differences between people
- Only acknowledges illnesses where care involves medical professionals
What are ‘illness narratives’?
- Story-telling and accounting practices in the face of illness
- How individuals make sense of their illness and experiences/understandings
- How individuals rebuild their identity and sense of self
What are the different aspects of the ‘work of chronic illness’?
- Illness work
- Everyday life work
- Emotional work
- Biographical work
- Identity work
What is illness work?
Work caused by the illness:
- Uncertainty pre-diagnosis
- Ambivalence/shock/relief from diagnosis
- Dealing with physical symptoms (has to be done before coping with social aspects)
- Adhering to treatments
Why is self-management of a condition difficult for patients?
- Poor rates of adherence
- Reduced quality of life
- Poor psychological wellbeing
- Responsibility for care placed on them when they are ill
- Do they really have understanding?
What factors are part of everyday life work?
- Coping - dealing with illness
- Strategy - actions and processes in managing the condition
- Normalisation - initially attempt to preserve pre-illness lifestyle, eventually designate new life as normal
What is emotional work?
Work to manage emotions and protect the emotional wellbeing of others:
- Trying to maintain normal activities
- Withdraw socially so as not to disrupt friendships
- Downplay pain or other symptoms
- Present a ‘cheery self’
What is biographical work?
Focuses on people’s experience of illness and disruption to their life
- Loss of self
- Struggle to lead a life they value
- Acknowledges differences between individuals
What are the 3 aspects of biographical disruption?
- Disruption of taken-for-granted behaviours (don’t know what you have until it’s gone)
- Disruption in explanatory systems (why me? Why now?)
- Mobilisation of resources (rearranging personal and community involvements)
What are limits of the biographical disruption theory?
- Doesn’t account for conditions from birth
- Some social groups expect illness more than others
- Older people may see chronic illness as biographically normal
What is identity work?
- The effect on how people see themselves and how others see them
- Some conditions carry certain connotations
- Illness can become a defining aspect of their identity
