Chronic Care Across the Lifespan

Introduction to Chronic Care Across the Lifespan

Chronic diseases are Australia's leading cause of sickness, injury, and death. The major challenge facing Australia's health system is overcoming chronic illnesses and underlying triggers. Together with our aged population, growing consumer demands, and high prescription and care costs, ever-increasing rates of chronic conditions place unprecedented pressures on individuals, societies, and the healthcare system (Lopez & Adair, 2019). Lowering the psychological, physical, financial, and social effects of chronic conditions can improve the quality of life and improve health outcomes for patients, their families, and community members. Besides which, the disproportionate burden of chronic health conditions and the greater risk of complications in priority populations, especially among older patients, should be considered (Xie et al., 2016). In this essay, we addressed the case study of Mrs. Mabel Sweeney who is suffering from chronic conditions. The value of health promotion and self-management in treating the disease along with clinical thinking skills using evidence-based treatment to deal with the chronic health conditions in the individuals.

Ms. Sweeney suffers from chronic heart disease recent weight gain, reduced exercise resistance, feet swelling, exhaustion, dyspnoea, and general weakness. The National Strategic Framework for Chronic Conditions Strategic Priority makes health promotion activities an important factor because it supports a healthier lifestyle, decreases health-related issues, and is a significant element in avoiding chronic diseases and help people improve their quality of life and live a longer life (Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, 2017). Health promotion is the method of encouraging people to gain control over their wellbeing and determinants, and thereby improve their health. The links between health-related activities and the conditions in which she lives often influence her health. Her life-condition factors are attributes, traits, or experiences that increase the risk of a chronic disease or health problem occurring in her. They include alcohol consumption, inadequate nutrition, and diet, lack of physical activity involving exercise aversion. The biomedical risk factors are related to the condition, environment, or function of the human body that leads to the development of chronic conditions. Whenever the additional pathological risk factors or the risk factors related to behavioral are present the risk factor becomes exacerbated (Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, 2017). She is living alone and unable to manage her daily activities which also makes her socially deserted affecting her mental state adding more risk of illness and chronic diseases. The harmful influence of risk factors on chronic illnesses can cumulatively affect individuals ' health results as they age and can also be passed to subsequent generations.

Since Mrs. Sweeney is having a history of heart failure so she has to be assessed for cardiovascular disease. There are several tests and health indicators which have been shown to suggest a person's risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke. They were optimized to show the degree of risk: mild, moderate, or high. Perhaps the most relevant heart risk factors are those in a person's past health history. Some imaging tests can be used in determining cardiac risk. For example, non-invasive tests can include an electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG) or stress test, also known as the ECG stress test or metabolic stress test. Invasive procedures can also be used to measure the existence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), but they are typically used in patients with symptoms and signs for medical diagnostics and not for risk evaluation (Zhang et al., 2018). Examples include an angiography/arteriography and a catheterization of the heart. The most popular instrument used to identify tachycardia and arrhythmia is an electrocardiogram. It's a quick and simple test that uses small sensors (electrodes) connected to the chest and arms to detect and monitor the electrical activity of the heart. The doctor carries out further testing if required. She may prescribe medications, the installation of a system that can correct an irregular pulse, or surgery to over-stimulate the heart's nerves. Historically, a medical diagnosis of dyspnea has underscored the battle for effective pathophysiology (Jin, 2018).

Chronic diseases affect all Australians, but certain populations are particularly impacted by a dynamic relationship between the physical climate, social and cultural factors, and risk factors for biomedicine and behavior. This is evidenced by higher chronic and infectious diseases in these communities and a bigger burden of illness, leading to unequal healthcare outcomes (Singh et l., 2019). Mrs. Mabel is staying very far from the reach of urban health care facilities. She is also an aged patient with no help from family and relatives. She faces difficulty in managing her daily living activities. All these conditions and her chronic condition of heart failure make her a part of the priority population. Individuals in priority groups are at greater risk of acquiring a chronic illness, and they are often more likely to encounter unequal access to health care, quicker development of their chronic disease, and greater hospitalization and mortality rates. In the health-care system, people within this demographic experience shortages. Targeted intervention by interventions at the population level and local scale, as well as inspiring people, neighborhoods, and societies, would also positively impact target groups and promote access to quality health care. Initiatives minimize the likelihood that priority groups may acquire a chronic disease. Public collaborations help to plan, develop, assess, and incorporate culturally responsive and socially significant programs)(Davies & Wood, 2018). The health service offers relevant knowledge and services to those with varying aspects of health literacy.

In the given case study of Mrs. Mabel Sweeney, she had to self-manage her blood pressure, weight gain, risk of heart failure, and her dietary habits. Health knowledge and communication enable, where necessary, self-management, and promotes involvement with health services. Most importantly Mrs. Mabel Sweeney should recognize their risk of the chronic condition so that the necessary skills can be adapted by her to take appropriate action. She should learn to self-manage her weight and try to put effort to keep a check on it. She also has to work on dietary habits by reducing the intake of canned food items which are high in salt content. Mrs. Sweeney can also learn to monitor her blood pressure at home from her health care professionals. Altogether getting information about her disseises and health conditions can help her to manage them and also make her aware as to when to contact health professionals in emergencies (Goodridge et al., 2019). There is more to active participation than just good self-management. Chronic disease self-management is critical for individuals with complex medical needs and minimal self-management abilities, so they can collaborate with healthcare professionals to gain further knowledge about health (Jonkman et al., 2017). Timely and effective diagnosis and care for chronic conditions require detecting and taking treatment for individuals with a chronic condition or at risk of developing it. Integrated evaluations and evidence-based screening services are supported and used in different settings for individuals with persistent illnesses health reviews.

Active involvement embodies a person-centered strategy that positions individuals at the core of their health care and encourages everyone to perform a lead role following their desires and abilities (El-Alti et al., 2019). In the case study in question, the patient Mrs. Mabel Sweeney is dealing with heart issues and her weight gaining issues. She is depressed and feels alone. People with chronic conditions should not be able to control their health alone, nor should they be forced to play a passive role. Mrs. Mabel Sweeney can regularly participate in joint decision-making processes whenever possible, with care relationships built between her and her health care providers. Her health problems, including wider social, emotional, and economic consequences, have several possible impacts on her situations. She will help me to make better choices about her safety and health. This will help create communication and commitment which will allow the action to optimize their health outcomes and preserve maximum standards of living at every phase of the disease. Active participation requires a health workforce with good expertise in effective communication skills, experience in the use of technologies, and the ability to adopt new and evolving technologies to help individuals. The health workforce is a vital partner for providing health information, education, and assistance to patients with varying medical literacy levels (Stanghellini & Mancini, 2017). Therefore, she needs to be actively involved to obtain a better health result that can also benefit her on a phycological level and have a successful social life.

Conclusion on Chronic Care Across the Lifespan

The National Strategic Framework for Chronic Conditions Strategic Priority makes health promotion activities an important factor because it promotes a healthy lifestyle, reduces health-related problems, and is a significant factor in the prevention of chronic diseases and helping people improve their quality of life and live longer. Chronic diseases affect all Australians, but some underprivileged populations are especially affected by a complex relationship between physical environment, cultural and social factors, and biomedical and behavioral risk factors. Health information and education enable, where necessary, self-management, and promotes involvement with health services. Active engagement embodies a person-centered strategy that puts people at the heart of their health care and allows them to play an active role according to their wishes and abilities.

References for Chronic Care Across the Lifespan

Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council. (2017). National strategic framework for chronic conditions.

Davies, A., & Wood, L. J. (2018). Homeless health care: meeting the challenges of providing primary care. Medical Journal of Australia209(5), 230-234.

El-Alti, L., Sandman, L., & Munthe, C. (2019). Person centered care and personalized medicine: Irreconcilable opposites or potential companions?. Health Care Analysis27(1), 45-59.

Goodridge, D., Bandara, T., Marciniuk, D., Hutchinson, S., Crossman, L., Kachur, B., ... & Bennett, A. (2019). Promoting chronic disease management in persons with complex social needs: A qualitative descriptive study. Chronic Respiratory Disease16, 1479973119832025.

Jin, J. (2018). Screening for cardiovascular disease risk with ECG. Jama319(22), 2346-2346.

Jonkman, N. H., Groenwold, R. H., Trappenburg, J. C., Hoes, A. W., & Schuurmans, M. J. (2017). Complex self-management interventions in chronic disease unravelled: A review of lessons learned from an individual patient data meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology83, 48-56.

Lopez, A. D., & Adair, T. (2019). Slower increase in life expectancy in Australia than in other high income countries: The contributions of age and cause of death. Medical Journal of Australia210(9), 403-409.

Singh, L., Goel, R., Rai, R. K., & Singh, P. K. (2019). Socioeconomic inequality in functional deficiencies and chronic diseases among older Indian adults: A sex-stratified cross-sectional decomposition analysis. BMJ Open9(2), e022787.

Stanghellini, G., & Mancini, M. (2017). The therapeutic interview in mental health: A values-based and person-centered approach. Cambridge University Press.

Xie, H., Cheng, C., Tao, Y., Zhang, J., Robert, D., Jia, J., & Su, Y. (2016). Quality of life in Chinese family caregivers for elderly people with chronic diseases. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes14(1), 99.

Zhang, W., Yu, L., Ye, L., Zhuang, W., & Ma, F. (2018). ECG signal classification with deep learning for heart disease identification. In 2018 International Conference on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (BDAI) (pp. 47-51). IEEE.

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