Benchmark - Human Experience Across the Health-Illness Continuum

Benchmark- Human Experience across the Health-Illness Continuum
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Health-Illness Continuum
Health-illness Continuum is a graphical representation of wellbeing developed by John Travis in 1972 (Figure 1). It proposes that an individual's wellbeing consists of mental consciousness, emotional health, and the state of illness (Schomerus et al.,2016). The right side shows excellent health and wellbeing accompanied by primary passage stages such as self-awareness, education, and growth (Silverman et al., 2018). The left side indicates illness or deteriorating health accompanied by signs, symptoms, disability, and death.
Figure 1: Graphical representation of the health-illness continuum
A continuum care system helps track a patient's condition and determines the intensity of care they require to stay healthy (Payton, 2017). A health-illness continuum is also important in treating patients by helping them acquire emotional and mental growth to make them believe that they will be okay (Machado & Bandeira, 2015). Through this perspective, a healthcare provider can motivate a patient to have quality health and prevent physical and emotional conditions by determining the scale where the patient lies in the continuum.
In addition, the health-illness continuum can assist the healthcare providers in explaining a disease process and effective care offered to the patient (Machado & Bandeira, 2015). This is possible because the concept helps the healthcare personnel to understand the progression from pre-mature death to high-level wellness. This understanding also gives options one should take to care for themselves. Although caring for patients is the ultimate role of healthcare providers, it is imperative first to provide self-care so that they can give patients the highest possible level of care.
Importance of Understanding the Health-Illness Continuum
As a health provider, understanding the health-illness continuum enables me to promote the value and dignity of individuals or groups and serve others in ways that promote human flourishing. One way the health-illness continuum can help me achieve this is through education. The continuum can help me educate the patients about how to attain wellbeing and inspire them to find their respective driving forces toward better health. I can also educate them on prevention and lifestyle choices that can improve their health and keep them away from illness. This action can also inspire patients to enlighten others, thus, reducing illness and promoting health outcomes.
Another way is by explaining a disease process and designing the necessary care. As a healthcare provider, understanding the health-illness continuum enables me to explain to the patients a disease process and give them options of overcoming certain illnesses. The Wellness-illness continuum will help me understand the nature of illness and what can be done to improve a person’s condition. By doing so, I will promote the value and dignity of individuals or groups.
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