Serious and Disabling Chronic Illnesses: Management and Coping

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering crisis theory, coping mechanisms, adaptive tasks, psychological impacts, and therapeutic interventions for serious chronic illnesses.

Shock

The initial reaction to being diagnosed with a serious health problem, characterized by feeling stunned or bewildered and behaving in an automatic, detached fashion.

Crisis Theory

A theoretical model stating that the outcome of a health crisis depends on the coping process, which is governed by three contributing influences: illness-related factors, background and personal factors, and physical and social environmental factors.

Illness-Related Factors

Characteristics of a disease—including perceived threat, degree of disability, physical pain, disfigurement, embarrassing bodily changes, and burdensome treatment regimens—that influence the ease of coping.

Background and Personal Factors

Individual attributes such as age, gender, social class, religious commitments, emotional maturity, self-esteem, and personality hardiness that determine how a person adjusts to chronic illness.

Physical and Social Environmental Factors

Contextual features influencing illness adjustment, including the confinement of hospital environments, home accessibility, assistive equipment, and emotional or informational social support.

Self-Blame

The belief that one is personally responsible for developing a chronic illness or its symptoms, which is linked to poorer coping and elevated depression levels over time.

Cognitive Appraisal

The patient's initial interpretation or evaluation of the meaning and personal significance of a medical condition to their life, which initiates the coping process.

Adaptive Tasks

Two distinct categories of challenges identified by Moos (1982) that patients must address during coping: tasks related to the illness or treatment, and tasks related to general psychosocial functioning.

Tasks Related to Illness or Treatment

Adaptive tasks involving managing symptoms and disabilities, adapting to hospital environments or medical procedures, and developing effective relationships with healthcare practitioners.

Tasks Related to General Psychosocial Functioning

Adaptive tasks aimed at managing negative feelings, retaining a positive outlook, preserving self-image and competence, maintaining interpersonal relationships, and preparing for an uncertain future.

Adaptation

The long-term process of making constructive emotional, physical, and behavioral changes to adjust continuously to life circumstances following a chronic diagnosis.

Interdisciplinary Team

A coordinated group of diverse professionals—including physicians, nurses, psychologists, therapists, vocational counselors, and social workers—working toward integrated rehabilitation goals.

Self-Management Programs

Comprehensive interventions that integrate educational, cognitive, and behavioral methods to help patients carry out treatment regimens, manage emotions, and adjust to new life roles.

Arthritis Self-Management Program

A six-week group intervention providing instruction in exercise, joint protection, relaxation techniques, diet, self-monitoring, and behavioral contracting for individuals with arthritis.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation and Biofeedback

Stress-management techniques that help patients control physiological processes and psychosocial factors to regulate conditions like blood glucose in diabetes, muscle function after paralysis, and seizures in epilepsy.

Cognitive Restructuring

A cognitive therapeutic method where clients identify distorted or inaccurate thoughts regarding their health and replace them with constructive, realistic interpretations.

Problem-Solving Training

A cognitive technique that equips patients with structured strategies to systematically think through medical problem situations and make effective everyday decisions.

Interpersonal Therapy

A therapeutic approach that aids patients in understanding and altering their behavioral and emotional interactions within their social environments, family units, and friendships.

Family Therapy

A group intervention utilizing cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal methods to modify dysfunctional family dynamics, reallocate caregiving routines, resolve grievances, and address illness anxieties.

Integrated (or Collaborative) Care

A healthcare delivery model that merges medical and psychosocial services across multiple providers to optimize chronic disease management, treat co-occurring emotional distress, and lower overall medical costs.