(4) Long Term Conditions Flashcards
What are long term conditions?
Long term, profound influence on sufferers life, often co-morbid conditions
- manifestations vary day-to-day
- controlled but not cured
- increase with ageing population
What are illness narratives?
Story-telling and accounting practices that occur in the face of illness
> allows patient to make sense of illness
What is the sociological approach to LTCs?
Focuses on:
- impact on social interaction and role performance
- experiences and meanings of LTCs and their effects
- how people manage and negotiate LTCs in their life
What is the sociological theory of LTCs?
The work of LTCs:
Illness work, everyday life work, emotional work, biographical work, identity work
What is illness work?
SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT, TREATMENT
Getting a diagnosis = period of uncertainty, process can be unpleasant, diagnosis can be shocking, relief
Managing symptoms = coping with physical signs of illness
Self-management = adherence to treatment, quality of life, mental wellbeing
What is everyday life work?
MANAGING DAILY LIVING
Coping = cognitive process in dealing with illness
Strategic management = actions in managing condition and its impact
Normalisation = trying to keep pre-illness identity in tact/redesignate your life as “normal life”
What is emotional work?
MANAGING ONE’S OWN EMOTIONS AND THOSE OF OTHERS
Work that people do to protect emotional well-being of others
What is biographical work?
RECONSTRUCTION OF BIOGRAPHY
Loss of self = loss of self-image
Biographical disruption
What is identity work?
WORK TO MAINTAIN AN ACCEPTABLE IDENTITY
How people see themselves/how others see them
Illness may become defining aspect of their personality
What is stigma?
Negatively defined condition, attitude, trait or behaviour conferring “deviant” status
What are the types of stigma?
Discreditable vs. Discredited
Felt vs. Enacted
What is discreditable stigma?
Nothing seen, but if found out …
What is discredited stigma?
Physically visible characteristic or well known stigma which sets them apart
What is enacted stigma?
Real experience of prejudice, discrimination, and disadvantage
What is felt stigma?
Fear of enacted stigma (feeling of shame)
