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Running head: Support needs of diabetic patient
Support needs of diabetic patient 7
Support needs of diabetic patient
Lissette Valcarcel
SU_NSG4055_W3_A2
Introduction
Diabetic persons require various forms of support if they are to live long with this disorder. This document discusses three forms of support that a diabetic person would need drawing from the interview I had with my diabetic participant. Further, it discusses some of the strategies for implementing the healthy people initiative towards achieving its goal concerning diabetes.
Support needs of diabetes patient
Emotional support.
From the interview with my participant, it was clear that very often he experiences certain negative emotions such as anger, fear, frustration, hopelessness shame and at the time a lot of gilts. This is not the case just with my participant, but research has indicated that it is a common feature in most of the diabet8c persons. Normally, once diagnosed with diabetes, an individual goes through stages like those that a bereaved person mentally. Just like that bereaved person needs some emotional support so is a diabetic person like my participant. The stages that my patient underwent are disbelief, denial, anger and currently, he seems to be in a state of depression. It seems from my interview with him that despite the support he gets, he still at times experience depression a lot. This concept of emotional support is needed from the side of the family to the medical professionals handling a patient like my participant.
It is important to understand clearly that emotional support is part of the treatment process for any diabetic person. Research has indicated diabetes to be linked to other disorders like blood pressure which is linked to psychological stress (Haas et al., 2012). One of the best ways of ensuring that a diabetic individual stays stress-free is to limit or help reduce any psychological or mental stress that would otherwise result in negative emotions. The emotional support offered to the individual makes him feel that, all is not lost. The concept of making the patient feel that even with diabetes, there is still life and he can live as normal as other persons make him eliminate the feelings of hopelessness that brings fear in him. Some of the ways to provide emotional support are through therapy groups which will make the patient feel that he is not the only one. The other one is mental therapy by a medical professional. It involves just talking to the patient about life and about himself making him feel not left alone.
Then there is the family concept. Making the individual feel that despite the disorder, he is still a member of the family. Not being left out in the family matters and ensuring that the patient’s happiness matters to all the family members is very important in providing emotional support. Then there is the concept of pressure at work. This requires colleagues and the employer to understand the patient’s situation and handle the patient with a lot of care. Not subjecting him to a lot of pressure at work will help eliminate work pressure that maintaining some peace of mind.
Financial support
Research has shown that diabetic person has financial needs that are almost three times those of healthy people (Chiang et al., 2014). On average, my participant indicated that he spends approximately $13, 700 annually on all the expenses related to healthcare. In some cases, the family alone is not always able to cater for the expenses. The healthy people 2020 needs to have a scheme for financial aid to this population as my participant stated during the interview. Other than family support, a patient can get support from insurance scheme. There are insurance policies that can help cover medical expenses. There are cases of outpatient where the patient financial sources must be relied on. When an individual whether healthy or sick is subjected to financial limitations in time of great need then automatically stress sets in. This is not healthy for a diabetic person and such a situation hinders the possible achievement of the healthy people 2020 goals. There is there for the need for the family, healthy people 2020 initiative and other organizations like American Association of the Diabetic persons to come to the financial aid of persons with diabetes.
Physical support
In my interview, it came out clear that my participant felt tired after doing hard physical jobs. That is an indication that diabetic persons are not good with hard labor jobs. In cases of the workplace, the employer needs to ensure that the kind of responsibilities assigned to the person is light in terms of physical labor required. The family plays the greatest role in ensuring physical support is offered in terms of the kinds of physical responsibilities performed by the patient in the family are not heavy duties. Physical support from the family also involves the family members ensuring that the patient has a recommended eating habit and lifestyle (Haas et al., 2012). Advising the patient against certain foods and making available the right ones are some of the physical support aspects that family members can provide. Co-workers can ensure that the patient is engaged in light physical activities as recommended by their physicians. This can be during gymnastics among other organization leisure moments.
Implementation of healthy people 2020 objectives
The main objective of healthy people 2020 to the diabetic people is to increase the life expectancy of the people with diabetes, reducing the cases of disorders associated with diabetes to the diabetic patients and finally reducing new cases of people being diagnosed of the disorder. There are various implementation strategies put by the healthy people 2020 initiative that will help my client.
Interventions that involve community health workers
This strategy is to use the community health workers to help the patients manage and live a longer lifespan. The community health worker in case acts as the bridge between the patient and the healthcare system. This strategy is such that the patient has a very close contact with the community health worker responsible for the specified location. The community health worker is in turn in close coordination with the doctors and other medical professionals in the healthcare facilities and systems. The key responsibility of the healthcare worker is monitoring the patient closely and reporting the progress of the whole treatment and management process. Further, the community health care professional provides advice to the patent on various diabetic management issues. This individual also schedules the meetings with the doctor.
Self-management mobile phone application
The healthy people 2020 initiative also has a mobile application used by the patients for self-management. The patient enters data into the application or they can use medical devices that automatically enters data into the application (Diabetes, 2016). The application then sends the data to the centralized healthcare system the patient then receives a response from the medical professionals assigned to assist by the system. Based on the data entered, the response is the doctor’s feedback concerning the state the patient is in. The feedback provides the patient with what they are required. It works as a consultation interface for the patient.
Use of telehealth to provide dietary intervention to the patients
This is a concept of information technology applied in this case. In this case, the healthcare providers and the patients can communicate through phone, e-mail, or even web-based applications. The intervention is to help the patients manage their diet and live a lifestyle recommended by the professionals. In most cases, this intervention would be distance.
Public education
The other strategy that is applicable to implementing this healthy person 2020 initiative is general education to the public. Providing information to the public concerning diabetes as a disease helps create awareness in them. It involves indicating to them what it is, what can cause it and ways to prevent it. Further, it is aimed at educating them on how to live together with the diabetic people, what to do and what not to do. Combining all these together, the concept of reducing new cases will be achieved.
Conclusion
Diabetic persons require three main forms of support. Emotional, financial, and physical support. Emotional support is about feeling, financially is concerned with money needs and physical support is for duties. Public education, telehealth, community health workers and use of mobile phone application are some of the strategies for achieving the goals.
References
Chiang, J. L., Kirkman, M. S., Laffel, L. M., & Peters, A. L. (2014). Type 1 diabetes through the
lifespan: a position statement of the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Care, 37(7), 2034-2054.
Haas, L., Maryniuk, M., Beck, J., Cox, C. E., Duker, P., Edwards, L., … & McLaughlin, S.
(2012). National standards for diabetes self-management education and support. The Diabetes Educator, 38(5), 619-629.
Diabetes. (2016). Retrieved November 27, 2017, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/diabetes/ebrs
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