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The beginning of a new year is often incredibly stressful. Finishing projects, getting through holiday activities, and planning for what’s ahead may feel overwhelming. Too much pressure and not enough time to get it all done can create a sense of time poverty. And this year, the usual rigmarole is happening against a backdrop of layoffs and economic challenges. As stress increases, calls for self-care do as well. What you need, according to some self-care narratives, is a lovely bath or a walk in the woods……Story continues…
BY Tracy Brower
Source: Fast Company
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Critics:
Self-care has been defined as the process of establishing behaviors to ensure holistic well-being of oneself, to promote health, and actively manage illness when it occurs. Individuals engage in some form of self-care daily with food choices, exercise, sleep, reading and dental care. Self-care is not only a solo activity as the community a group that supports the person performing self-care overall plays a large role in access to, implementation of, and success of self-care activities.
Routine self-care is important when someone is not experiencing any symptoms of illness, but self-care becomes essential when illness occurs. General benefits of routine self-care include prevention of illness, improved mental health, and comparatively better quality of life. Self-care practices can greatly vary from individual to individual as it is a very personal act. Self-care is seen as a partial solution to the global rise in health care costs that is placed on governments worldwide.
A lack of self-care in terms of personal health, hygiene and living conditions is referred to as self-neglect. The use of caregiver and personal care assistant maybe needed. There is a growing body of knowledge related to these home care workers. There exists a close overlap between the term self-care and self-management introduced by Lorig and Holman.
In their spearheading paper, they defined three self-management tasks: medical management, role management, and emotional management; and six self-management skills: problem solving, decision making, resource utilization, the formation of a patient–provider partnership, action planning, and self-tailoring.
Chronic illness (a health condition that is persistent and long lasting, often impacts one’s whole life, e.g., heart failure, diabetes, high blood pressure) requires behaviors that control the illness, decrease symptoms, and improve survival such as medication adherence and symptom monitoring. An acute illness like an infection (e.g., COVID) requires the same types of self-care behaviors required of people with a chronic illness, but the medication adherence and symptom monitoring behaviors associated with an acute illness are typically short lived.
Routine health maintenance self-care behaviors that individuals engage in (e.g., adequate sleep) are still required of those dealing with acute or chronic illness. For the majority of people with a chronic illness, time spent having that illness managed by a health professional is vastly outweighed by time spent in self-care. It has been estimated that most people with a chronic illness spend only about 0.001% or 10 hours per year of their time with a healthcare provider.
In people with chronic illness, self-care is associated with fewer symptoms, fewer hospitalizations, better quality of life, and longer survival compared to individuals in whom self-care is poor Self-care can be physically and mentally difficult for those with chronic illness, as their illness is persistent and treated in a vastly different manner from an acute illness.There are numerous factors that affect self-care. These factors can be grouped as personal factors (e.g., person, problem, and environment), external factors, and processes.
Lack of motivation: when one doesn’t have enough energy. This can be caused by stress, anxiety, or other mental health illnesses. Cultural beliefs: this includes traditional gender roles, family relationships, collectivism. This can also affect self care behaviors. Self-efficacy or confidence: one’s confidence can positively or negatively affect their mental state. Functional and cognitive abilities: by not being perfect humans, one tends to focus on their weakness.
Support from others: such as from family or friends can be crucial to have a healthy and positive mindset to do self-care. Access to care: depending on the self-care some require specific resources or objects in order to carry out. Living situation: can greatly affect an individual’s self-care.Surrounding environment: must be safe and promote self-care for all residents. Proximity of health care facilities: are important to have at a close radius from one’s household. As well as office/clinic opening hours and affordability must be taken into consideration.
Self-care practices are shaped by what are seen as the proper lifestyle choices of local communities. Social determinants of health play an important role in self-care practices. Internal personal factors such as motivation, emotions, and cognitive abilities also influence self-care maintenance behaviors. Motivation is often the driving force behind performing self-care maintenance behaviors. Goal setting is a practice associated with motivated self care.
A person with depression is more likely to have a poor dietary intake low in fruits and vegetables, reduced physical activity, and poor medication adherence. An individual with impaired cognitive or functional abilities (e.g., memory impairment) also has a diminished capacity to perform self-care maintenance behaviors such as medication adherence which relies on memory to maintain a schedule.
Self-care is influenced by an individual’s attitude and belief in his or her self-efficacy or confidence in performing tasks and overcoming barriers. Cultural beliefs and values may also influence self-care. Cultures that promote a hard-working lifestyle may view self-care in contradictory ways Personal values have been shown to have an effect on self-care in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Social support systems can influence how an individual performs self-care maintenance.
Social support systems include family, friends, and other community or religious support groups.These support systems provide opportunities for self-care discussions and decisions. Shared care can reduce stress on individuals with chronic illness.
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