Adaptation of the child and family to life with a chronic illness

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (S3) ◽  
pp. 110-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Mussatto

Chronic illness in a child produces stress for both the child with the illness and the family of which he or she is a part.1 Today, it is estimated that greater than one-tenth of children are living with some form of chronic illness or condition.2–3 Faced with this stress, children and families are required to adapt to potential physical, emotional, social, and financial challenges. Professionals providing health care have an opportunity to influence how children and families interpret and adapt to these challenges. Guidance can be drawn from the multiple theoretical perspectives that have explored the process of adaptation to chronic illness.

1991 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth E. McShane

Health care professionals have focused for the most part on individuals within families as they provide care in acute care settings. The lack of a theoretical perspective to permit observing the family as a unit with interacting parts has contributed to this practice. This article presents an overview of trends and of four theoretical frameworks that have contributed to family practice and research, both for other disciplines and for nursing. Symbolic interactionism, systems, developmental, and social exchange theories are promising frameworks for considering family relationships now and into the future. The purpose, major concepts, and implications for nursing practice of each theory are presented


1986 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Goszer Tritt ◽  
Lillian M. Esses

This article traces and assesses the progress that has been made to date in understanding how childhood chronic illness impacts on subsystems of the family as well as on the family as a unit. Review of both the theoretical and the clinical literature raises several questions, including the utility of adopting a psychopathological model to ascertain the functioning of subsystems and the entire system in families wherein there exists a chronically ill child. The implications of these questions for future research endeavors and for clinical practice are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley A. Berard ◽  
André P. Smith

Fibromyalgia is a chronic illness with primary symptoms of widespread pain and fatigue. Social media applications have become a recent resource allowing individuals with fibromyalgia to interact in a virtual community devoted to the illness. This study explores how such a community develops and maintains itself on Instagram and the ways it creates social capital for its users. Data are derived from Instagram posts and open-ended questionnaires completed by users living with fibromyalgia who use the application. Using content analysis and semiotic methodology, the study analyzes the diverse ways in which users shared their experiences with fibromyalgia, the management of its symptoms, and issues encountered in accessing health care systems. Instagram aids in the development of a community by facilitating intimate and supportive interactions about the illness and the creation of personalized day-to-day narratives accessible to all. Norms of trust, acceptance, and reciprocity characterize the diversity of interactions in this community.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-128
Author(s):  
Hugh C. Thompson

In the April 1977 issue of Pediatrics (59:636, 1977), Dr. Cunningham recommends that the patient's medical record be given to the family to keep. He urges that the Committee on Standards of Child Health Care consider this subject. For at least 20 years the American Academy of Pediatrics has published for this very purpose, a "Child Health Record." This is publication HE-4 of the Academy and was last revised in 1968. The central office of the Academy tells me that, at the present time, between 50,000 and 100,000 of these are sold annually to physicians for the distribution that Dr. Cunningham recommends.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 91 (5) ◽  
pp. ii-ii

In June 1992, 35 health care professionals, child and disability advocates, researchers, clinicians, and parents met at Wingspread Center in Racine, Wisconsin, for an invitational conference on Culture and Chronic Illness in Childhood. The meeting had as its goal the identification of the state of knowledge on the interface between culture, chronic illness, child development, and family functioning so as to lay the foundations for "culturally appropriate" health policy formulation, "culturally sensitive" services, and "culturally competent" clinicians. The purpose of this special supplement is to establish a national agenda for research, policy, service delivery, and training in addressing the needs of all children with chronic illnesses and disabilities that takes the family, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and culture into full account. To meet this task, five papers were commissioned. The first, by Newacheck et al, addresses the changes in incidence and prevalence of chronic illness and disability among children and youth by ethnic group. The second paper, by McManus et al, focuses on the trends in health services organization, delivery, and financing as they vary among ethnic groups in the United States. What emerges is a rhetoric of cultural sensitivity not paralleled in the organization or financing of health services. Groce and Zola's paper addresses how cultural attitudes and beliefs are the foundations of our perceptions about health and illness. Those perceptions at times are predisposed to conflict with a health care professional who, coming from a different culture, may hold different norms and beliefs. Brookins grounds her discussion within the context of child development and argues that for a child of color or one whose ethnic heritage is other than mainstream, the key to developmental success is bicultural competence—the ability to walk in and between two worlds.


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