The Health-Illness Continuum and Its Rationale
The health-illness continuum integrates tactics that enable individuals to improve their well-being and avoid premature death. One of the vital approaches is offering preventative treatment before individuals present signs and symptoms of a particular condition. This perspective also educates people about the risk factors that expose them to disease prevalence. As Demarco, Nystrom, and Salvatore (2011) state, patient education should always be portrayed as a key part of the healthcare continuum whereby healthcare professionals are expected to provide accurate health information. The primary motivation behind the health-illness continuum is to protect individuals against potential diseases and premature death. This concept correlates with the need to enable individuals to maintain good health. It motivates patients and healthy persons to access a plethora of knowledge to position themselves in a better place to make viable and autonomous healthcare decisions. Notably, it calls for care providers to generate a wide range of information and avail to patients to obtain quality healthcare outcomes. Professionals are keen to meet the expected milestones to prevent further exposure to diseases and reduced premature deaths.
Understanding the Health-Illness Continuum and Its Ability to Promote Value and Dignity of Human Life
Health-Illness Continuum is an essential tool in the healthcare sector. It enables service providers to value and observe human life dignity. It supports human flourishing because healthcare providers can offer viable insights for the patients and community members to protect themselves against disease prevalence. For example, exposure to the progression of illnesses to the level of premature death enables healthcare providers to recommend strategic actions and behaviors that guarantee better health and well-being. The attainment of outcomes and approaches such as autonomy, optimism, self-esteem, and personal growth among patients, their families, and the community generates happiness and flourishing (vanderWeele, 2017). There is a general feeling of positive affect and life satisfaction. Dignity helps individuals maintain the maximum possible level of independence across various healthcare segments (Cairns et al., 2013). Healthcare professionals ensure that they respect patients, their families, and the community as a whole through their wide range of care practices. Notably, they also observe personal care when handling patients to reduce contracting diseases and associated conditions. They understand that even as they focus on patients, it is important to observe safety. Professionals must first provide and meet personal care to be in a better place to deliver the highest possible care level.
Reflection on the Overall State of Health
One of the key behaviors that distract the patient from developing quality health and well-being is the stressful, hectic, and demanding daily schedule. It makes the patient develop stress as they experience psychological issues to their complex tasks. For instance, attending college, work, and handling family duties is not an easy task. The patient feels worn out and prone to stress. The increased work at disposal affects the development of appropriate health. Also, the inability to undertake health related behaviors such as exercising and drinking large volumes of water exposes the patient to inadequate body health and well-being. Research shows that regular exercising helps individuals to stay healthy and energetic (Abou Elmagd, 2016). It also prevents conditions such as migraines and heart diseases. The patient’s fall on the health-illness continuum emerges from failure to access information to boost health status. The recognition that the patient can find effective ways of managing stress indicates a failure to access potential health information to promote health and overall body well-being. Also, the inability to seek a healthcare professional’s service for appropriate recommendations highlights a fall in the continuum.
Resources and Options for Developing Wellness and Health-Illness Spectrum
Patients can rely on available information in different health-related platforms or seek care and attention services from service providers. Health information can be accessed across platforms such as books, the Internet, and magazines. These sources can deliver quality information that can enable individuals to understand their health and well-being. Also, visiting healthcare providers can boost their knowledge of the health-illness spectrum. Research shows that hospitals and other healthcare institutions play a vital role in bridging the care continuum gap (De Regge et al., 2017). Integrated care programs meant for a critical segment such as the chronically ill patients’ relays transitional care interventions for better outcomes. Also, patients have an opportunity to learn more about their health from the care providers.
In managing chronic diseases, these resources can help patients develop insights linked to their care and safety measures that prevent further exposure to adverse conditions. In line with recovering from an illness, visiting a hospital can enable a patient to progress and fasten their recovery journey because they obtain different treatment-based approaches. Access to educative materials relays excellent information on possible prevention measures against further damage that patients can develop during recovery. Lastly, these resources allow a patient to meet self-actualization levels are they are likely to overcome the prevailing challenges due to the access to a spectrum of viable information. Overall, healthcare resources and options should be availed to patients, their families, and the community at large to boost care outcomes across distinct facilities.
References
Abou Elmagd, M. (2016). Benefits, need, and importance of daily exercise. International Journal of Physical Education, Sports, and Health, 3(5).
Cairns, D., Williams, V., Victor, C., Richards, S., Le May, A., Martin, W., & Oliver, D. (2013). The meaning and importance of dignified care: findings from a survey of health and social care professionals. BMC geriatrics, 13(1), 28.
De Regge, M., De Pourcq, K., Meijboom, B., Trybou, J., Mortier, E., & Eeckloo, K. (2017). Hospitals’ role in bridging the care continuum: a systematic review of coordination of care and follow-up for adults with chronic conditions. BMC health services research, 17(1), 550.
DeMarco, J., Nystrom, M., & Salvatore, K. (2011). The importance of patient education throughout the continuum of health care. Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, 15(1), 22-31.
VanderWeele, T. J. (2017). On the promotion of human flourishing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(31), 8148-8156.
