Psychosocial Aspects

Name: Anna
Age: 18
Netballer
Suffers from exertional asthma

Anna may feel:

Denial (refuse to admit that she is suffering from asthma, makes up excuses for her coughing fits. May refuse to take her asthmatic medications)
Anger (feels frustrated that she cannot perform as well as she used to in netball, why does this have to happen to her? May blame others for her medical condition i.e. her mom)
Bargaining ( partial compliance with treatment)
Depression (gets upset about her condition and how it has decreased her quality of life)
Acceptance (accepts her condition, deals with it, is compliant with her medications )

How the doctor can help

Counsel and educate (purpose of education is to empower patients to undertake self-management more appropriately and effectively) Anna on asthma to help her understand the disease more and hence aid her to cope with asthma.
This can be done by:
􀂄providing resources on asthma. This should include written asthma action plans and information leaflets, etc. Non-promotional material is available from Asthma UK (www.asthma.org.uk).
􀂄Tailor the education and advice to the individual needs of the patient, respecting differing ambitions, wishes for autonomy and age.

When counseling Anna, it may help to tell her these points
􀂄Nature of the disease
􀂄Nature of the treatment
􀂄Identify areas where patient most wants treatment to have effect
􀂄How to use the treatment
􀂄Development of self-monitoring/self-assessment skills
􀂄Negotiation of the asthma action plan in light of identified patient goals
􀂄Recognition and management of acute exacerbations
􀂄Appropriate allergen or trigger avoidance

In addition, create a treatment plan that is preventative so Anna can carry on playing her netball. Thus the treatment plan may be aimed to minimize the effect of asthma on her life.

Anna and her mom could join a self-help asthma group so as to have emotional support from other people suffering the same disease.

Her mom can help in reducing incidences of asthma attacks by stopping smoking. This reduces the amount of passive smoking done by anna. It will be good to advice anna to quit smoking as well.


http://www.sign.ac.uk/guidelines/published/support/guideline63/download.html

Contributed by Christine