Chronic illness
Chronic illness is a term applied to a broad range of diseases that is long lasting in its effects and that vary greatly both in their essential characteristics and the ways in which they affect a family system and its adaptive functioning. Every family is a balanced system and after learning of a member’s chronic illness, a family will experience some loss of equilibrium. The illness can cause emotional distress throughout, impair the ability to properly support the member and particularly if each member is attempting to deal with his own fears and frustrations alone.
The first issue to consider when it comes to the impact of a chronic illness is how the disease actually affects the family’s capacity to fulfill its essential purposes: for example, providing material security for its members, providing for their developmental needs, and providing care and support for ill and disabled members. The second issue is the impact of critical components of family functioning, includes family structural and organizational patterns, communication processes, multigenerational patterns and the family life cycle, and family belief systems (Rolland, 1994).
Let say a child get sick, the mother and father may or will become consumed with the care of their sick child, and sometime at the expense of nearly everything else in their lives. In that situation the parents may find themselves almost constantly investigating new options, reading about alternative treatments, and pondering the future: Is there a better medication for my child? Is it worth getting another doctor 's opinion? Can I be doing more?
As a parent, you might sometimes feel that the demands upon you are endless, from trips to the doctor 's office to the preparation of special meals. You may feel constantly fatigued, never able to recoup your energy. If anything gets sacrificed, it is often time spent with your spouse, or time for your own personal interests and pursuits.
On the other hand, a child 's chronic
The first issue to consider when it comes to the impact of a chronic illness is how the disease actually affects the family’s capacity to fulfill its essential purposes: for example, providing material security for its members, providing for their developmental needs, and providing care and support for ill and disabled members. The second issue is the impact of critical components of family functioning, includes family structural and organizational patterns, communication processes, multigenerational patterns and the family life cycle, and family belief systems (Rolland, 1994).
Let say a child get sick, the mother and father may or will become consumed with the care of their sick child, and sometime at the expense of nearly everything else in their lives. In that situation the parents may find themselves almost constantly investigating new options, reading about alternative treatments, and pondering the future: Is there a better medication for my child? Is it worth getting another doctor 's opinion? Can I be doing more?
As a parent, you might sometimes feel that the demands upon you are endless, from trips to the doctor 's office to the preparation of special meals. You may feel constantly fatigued, never able to recoup your energy. If anything gets sacrificed, it is often time spent with your spouse, or time for your own personal interests and pursuits.
On the other hand, a child 's chronic
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