Health Illness Continuum

Health Illness Continuum

              Health-illness continuum is a well-being concept credited to John.W.Travis which he posted in 1972. It is a graphical representation which indicates that patients are moving towards the right direction, they can be taken to be moving towards wellness. Conversely, as they move further to the left direction they are taken to be moving towards illness and as they move much further to the left, they are assumed to be nearing death. At the middle of the right and the left direction of the continuum is a point referred to as the neutral point which medics interpret as a state of non-illness. It is worthy to emphasize that members of the medical fraternity use this crucial tool to advice and offer prompt council to their patients to plan for their health. In this context, this paper seeks to critically explain health illness continuum and its relevance to patient care.

Health illness continuum is important in patient care due to the fact that it does not only focus on the treatment focus but it also draws attention towards the overall well being of the patient (Silverman, 2015). Deep knowledge of the health illness continuum comes in handy to health care providers to promote the value and dignity of patients through a variety of ways. First and foremost it should be understood the health of humans is unpredictable. For instance, an individual can wake up early in the morning and crawl out of the blankets feeling very okay. Later in the day the same individual might experience severe headache and stomach pains. This out rightly deprives the individual the happiness which he enjoys in normal body functioning.

Medics have an obligation to restore such conditions to the optimal level of wellness ( Karceski, 2014). This requires a great deal of knowledge of how the health illness continuum operates. Armed with foots on how it operates, health care providers will successfully manage to create awareness among people so as to alert them to avoid risky activities in a bid to protect them from contracting diseases and also as a way to keep premature death bay.

Personal health is paramount and skills in health illness continuum helps medical practioners to promote preventive treatment for individuals even prior showing signs and symptoms of unwell beings. Knowledge of health illness continuum equips the medics with an alternative tool to indicate unwell being of individuals rather than just relying on the availability and absence of symptoms since there are psychological conditions which clearly shows an individual is unwell such as stress, depression or even anxiety ( Silverman, 2015).

It is key to emphasize that health does not only mean presence or absence of disease but also mental, physical and social well-being. Therefore, arguing right from this angle, I can only infer that quite often diseases such as pneumonia and malaria pushes my health on the left continuum of the illness health spectrum. Injuries and bruises also strive to push my much needed health to the left continuum. It is also significant to point out that conditions such as stress, anger sorrow and depression, negatively affect the health of humans as it pushes the health illness continuum to the left. Socially it can be argued that lack of basic needs such as food shelter, and clothing affects our health in negative ways. Our human relations considerably determine our health ( Silverman, 2015). For instance, if our relationship with the people we hold dear goes soar, our health is affected negatively as this may trigger anger, stress and worst case sceneries depression which eventually makes us unhappy. This unhealthy relationship does more harm than good to our healthy lifestyle since it pushes the health illness continuum to the left direction hence putting us at risk of contracting diseases and in some severe instances this might end up causing unnecessary premature death (Karceski, 2014).

Behaviors that support human health include proper eating habits. People who consume balanced diet have their health illness continuum facing the right direction. The same can also be said for people who carry out regular exercise ( Silverman, 2015). This is because much weight breeds to obesity and with this condition the health illness continuum which spells doom to human health. It is not farfetched to claim that people who communicate their emotions effectively live healthier lives. Making proper decisions an art that people should embrace as the decisions we make everyday greatly affects our health lifestyles. As at now I fall at the left continuum of the health illness continuum due to a variety of    reasons which will succinctly explain here; First and foremost, I’m struggling to stay afloat without a steady source of income. This often causes stress thus affecting my overall health life. Memories of departed family members, that cross my mind occasionally rob my joy and this causes discomfort which largely affects my health.

It remains a foregone conclusion that proper decisions have an overall impact of pushing the health illness continuum to the right continuum indicating a state of wellness. Our everyday relationships with friends, relatives, and acquitances largely affect our health. Healthy relationships results to the continuum facing the right direction which is suggestive of a state of wellness.