Society and Chronic Health Conditions

Society generally doesn’t cope well with the concept of chronic conditions or chronic illness, especially invisible conditions. All understand terminal illness and curable illness. The vast, and increasing, number of unwell people diagnosed with an invisible condition that is neither terminal NOR curable? Not so much understanding, not even by some members of the medical and scientific communities.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) talks about noncommunicable diseases and usually focuses on cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. The WHO says the majority of deaths from these conditions occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Conversely, if we look at autoimmune diseases, also noncommunicable, we find the incidence is rising dramatically in countries like the UK, USA and Denmark.

Four million people in the UK are living with an autoimmune condition – which can cause pain, difficulty, lost opportunities in work and in life, and in many cases place people at risk of early death. Four million people. That’s almost one in every 16 of us.

Source: https://www.immunology.org/sites/default/files/connect-immune-research-are-you-autoimmune-report.pdf

Then there are those of us with auto-inflammatory conditions with genetic links and immune system process all combined.

Many noncommunicable diseases are progressive – in other words, the patient may become disabled over time. HOWEVER progression can, in many cases, be slowed dramatically by good management: modern medications, responsible eating, EXERCISE.

Yet society is not good at understanding these concepts. Firstly, people struggle with the concept that chronic patients are not curable. There seems to be this basic premise that if you are not terminal, then you must be able to be cured. Society is far better at understanding visible conditions, such as paraplegia. Even when I was using a walking stick for a brief period, I got “better” acceptance on planes, trains and automobiles. That’s visible. This may well come from earlier times when it was quite likely people with chronic conditions did in fact die due to factors related to their conditions. For example, if any of the arthritic conditions progressed to the stage you could not hunt and gather to feed yourself, you may have starved. Asthma can be well controlled with today’s medical knowledge and treatments, but 1,000 years ago? Psychologically, humans cope with the two categories of terminal and curable – those two states have been around as long as we have. Chronic patients, those who are technically sick but live an almost normal life and almost normal life span, is a relatively new health state.

I do not personally like the terms chronic illness and chronically ill. I am not ill in the sense I am not able to live a relatively normal life. I’m not confined to bed, I’m not in hospital, I’m not on a drip: I’m still driving, swimming, working. I have chronic conditions I must MANAGE, I can never stop managing those conditions, but I am not ILL in the sense of the common usage of the word. I stress the difference between common use and medical use of the word ill. I’d like to see a different description we can use. Which sounds worse to the non-medical person: “I have a chronic condition” or “I am chronically ill”? Ill implies, rightly or wrongly, that I’m unable to function in a normal way (with some specific adjustments, perhaps). “I have a chronic condition” sounds much less scary (even to me). Society generally doesn’t refer to a paraplegic as chronically ill because many are not “ill” – does anyone think of Dylan Alcott as “ill” even though, medically, he is. We think of him as a paralympian. His achievements speak for themselves.

This is not to say that as chronic conditions progress over time the patient may not become very ill. They can. Marieke Vervoort, another paralympian, recently ended her life in Belgium when her incurable, degenerative spinal disease reached the point it was too hard for her body. It is wonderful that Vervoort had this option available to her when needed. 

“I’m really scared, but those (euthanasia) papers give me a lot of peace of mind because I know when it’s enough for me, I have those papers,” she said.

I’m focusing on those of us who have been diagnosed but are still able to function and may do so for many years PROVIDED we manage our conditions. Now, this is where there seems to be a disconnect between society and the understanding of chronic conditions. If I tell a well, non-medical person that I need to balance (pace) my exercise regime and my rest times this seems to be hard for many to grasp. You are sick enough to need rest but you go to the gym and you swim? This makes no sense. Well, it DOES make sense, that is what some of us must do to manage our conditions. Different conditions, different management plans.

Society includes governments. Governments are made up of people – who also do not necessarily get the managing the condition concept. The costs of managing chronic conditions, costs that are not strictly medication, can be high for individuals. Yet there is little support for those costs. If we don’t manage our conditions the costs to society become higher because patients may lose the ability to work: there are ongoing social costs that come with that.

It affects our employability. Employers, perfectly normal members of society, can struggle to consider a person with a chronic condition. They see it as a risk. Yet in many cases we are a more predictable health risk than a perfectly healthy person who may start work today and have a car accident tomorrow or be diagnosed with a more severe illness a month later. Most of us know what we need to do to manage our conditions. We MAY need some flexibility: part-time work to allow for exercise, medical appointments, rest. Or perhaps a later start time (arthritic conditions are notoriously inflexible in the mornings).

As a society we do accept some invisible chronic conditions very well, such as asthma and type 1 diabetes. Why the difference? Perhaps because these conditions are relatively unobtrusive to the people around you. Most would not know a person had these conditions unless the fact is disclosed. As a society we also understand these conditions are now (in most cases) well controlled by medications. The prevalence is also a factor: most of us know a diabetic or an asthma patient. Hayfever is another condition we all just accept as being a “normal” condition people have – we don’t ostracise hayfever sufferers.

It is the more systemic and/or less prevalent (rarer) chronic conditions that seem to be less well accepted and less well understood. With the annual increase in prevalence, we need to develop greater understanding and acceptance. Society also needs to consider better support mechanisms. Every person with a chronic condition or conditions will likely have a task that is beyond their physical capabilities, yet they can otherwise live a normal life. As a society we need to address chronic condition support to assist patients to stay as well as possible for as long as possible. Keep people independent, gainfully employed, contributing to society. This maintains the patient’s mental health. To do otherwise is false economy.

How we make this shift is a challenge society has not yet recognised, let alone is considering solutions for. Yet with the annual increase in prevalence, action is needed.

How do we drive change? Society has made huge accessibility improvements for people with mobility aids: society can do this too.