Social Support And Chronic Illness In The Family

Running head: SOCIAL SUPPORT AND CHRONIC ILLNESS IN THE FAMILY 1

Social Support and Chronic Illness in the Family

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Institution

SOCIAL SUPPORT AND CHRONIC ILLNESS IN THE FAMILY 2

Social Support and Chronic Illness in the Family

Introduction

Social support is no doubt a critical factor in tackling a chronic condition in a family or

rather predicting a physical condition of an individual all the way from childhood to older adult

in the contemporary society. Apparently, lack of social support is likely to impact a particular

individual in a negative way or disadvantage their well –being. Chronic illness can sometimes

limit an individual a healthy lifestyle as they fight through in their daily being. Essentially, the

existence of necessary social support can help an individual to overcome stressors and rebuild

themselves despite a particular tough condition. This paper aims to discuss the importance of

social support to an individual battling chronic illness in a family.

Literature Review

An individual suffering from a chronic disease often suffers from stress throughout their

lives. Take an example of a family, who are fighting cancer, they are usually overwhelmed with

different types of demands as well as stressors (Joachim & Acorn, 2016). Families are always

worried about their loved one's diagnosis of this type of illness (Harrison, Falvo, Weiss, &

Holland, 2017). On a more positive viewpoint, social support is often a huge psychological

element for the affected family. An increase of social support to the affected individual in most

cases tends to shape their immune system and their overall well-being (Ploeg, Biehler,Willison,

Hutchison, & Blythe, 2016). This kind of support is likely to improve the function of the body of

the impacted persons as well as allowing them to handle stress more efficiently.

It is very critical for those affected family members to be in a position to often switch

between two different worlds; the world of their suffering member of the family and the world

that is real outside the nursing home (Clerk, 2018). In essence, social support is mostly

SOCIAL SUPPORT AND CHRONIC ILLNESS IN THE FAMILY 3

considered by many individuals to be acting as a buffer the level of stress among the affected

family (Han & Belcher, 2016)). Knowing that other people are there to provide necessary

support makes a huge difference. Those who lack social support from other people often report a

deteriorating health condition as they try to battle a particular disease. In most cases, a family

that has no social support have to fully rely on themselves more than usual to ensure that their

patient is well and running.

Primarily, it is important to pay a full attention to the stressful families together with their

loved ones. Notably, the unfortunate condition in most cases comes to impair the functioning of

the affected family especially when they become overwhelmed with this amount of stress along

with the poor health condition among the chronic illness patient they are taking care of (Clerk,

2018). It is therefore evident that the family of the patient suffering from a condition such as

cancer cannot handle all responsibility of caring for the patient by themselves. In case there is no

immediate help from the extended family, then there is an absolute need for an outsider to help

handle the situation whether financially or emotionally.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that social experience is important in battling chronic illness

by a particular family or rather an individual. The progress in researchers regarding the

relationship between the social support and chronicle illness in a family will, therefore, help

people to understand the effect of a good social experience towards a healthy mental and

physical growth of a patient. The importance of social support is crucial to everyone in the

society to help nature a good care for a particular ill person in a family. There is, therefore, the

need for more research in this field to shade the light on the psychological impact of social

support in the contemporary society that is faced with challenges such as chronic illness.

SOCIAL SUPPORT AND CHRONIC ILLNESS IN THE FAMILY 4

References

Corey M. Clerk. (2018). Personalityresearch.org. Retrieved 8 March 2018, from

http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/clark.html

Han, H. R., & Belcher, A. E. (2016). Computer-mediated support group use among parents of

children with cancer: an exploratory study. A Cross Section of Nursing Research: Journal

Articles for Discussion and Evaluation, 19, 241.

Harrison, C., Falvo, D., Weiss, V., & Holland, B. E. (2017). Medical and psychosocial aspects of

chronic illness and disability. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Joachim, G. L., & Acorn, S. (2016). Living with chronic illness: The interface of stigma and

normalization. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 32(3).

Ploeg, J., Biehler, L., Willison, K., Hutchison, B., & Blythe, J. (2016). Perceived support needs

of family caregivers and implications for a telephone support service. Canadian Journal

of Nursing Research Archive, 33(2).

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