Dual Income Family Care

Living with a chronic condition not only effects the individual, but it effects the entire family. An adolescent living with a chronic health condition not only depends on their family for support, but also on support from their friends, classmates, and healthcare team (Rostami, Parsa-Yekta, Najafi Ghezeljeh, & Vanaki, 2014). Supporting an individual with a chronic disease leaves an emotional impact and can be financially straining as well. Families living with a sick child must find strategies to cope. Whether the coping strategies utilized are positive or negative, they leave a lasting effect on the entire family, as well as the child living with the condition (Woodson, Thakkar, Burbage, Kichler, & Nabors, 2015). Involvement of the parents in this situation is vital to the child’s future success in managing their illness (Landers, Friedrich, Jawad, & Miller, 2016). This paper will explore one family’s story of living with, and coping with, a child who has recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).

With increased levels of stress and psychological demand, the need for peer support and networking is evident. Both face-to-face and online options are available for support. One method of peer support is through online social networking support. Online support of the parents has been shown to significantly increase self-efficacy in managing diabetes¹³. Parents share experiences and provide support to one another leading to a positive impact in dealing with the distress of managing diabetes¹⁴.

Not surprisingly, this meta-analysis reinforced previous findings of a general negative impact of a having a sibling with a chronic health condition. These findings were consistent with previous studies. The method of this meta-analysis gave greater insight regarding how siblings of chronically ill children cope with respect to internalization, externalization, and self-attributes.

Moreover, social media can be very beneficial to patients suffering from chronic conditions as well as their family and friends (Norton & Strauss, 2013). For rare diseases local community support groups may not be available. Social media steps in to fill this void by offering users a variety of different online support groups, blogs, newsletters, and networks. Individuals can use such resources to reach out to others with similar issues, find much needed support during difficult times, and become aware of treatments and medications that worked for others with their same illness that may prompt them to contact their doctor about other possibilities in treatment options. When used properly, smartphones and social media can be very beneficial to healthcare providers and patients.

Siblings, the ones we call our best friends, brother, sister, family. They are the ones that we have a special bond with, the ones that we can tell our deepest secrets to in confidence. The funny things about siblings though is that they have their own way of seeing the world around them. You have the same parent(s), but see things in different perspective, that’s what makes you and your siblings work well together like a running machine. Or maybe the perspective of one throws the metaphorical wrench into the gears of that machine, causing change, a difference in thinking. In the story of Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, two siblings, Maggie and Dee, face differences. From their appearance, to personality, and even the family heirlooms, they have a different perspective from each other.

My niece Mikah Bradford was born October 13th, 1988. She was born prematurely. Mikah spent the first month of her life in a neonatal incubator. My second oldest sister Crystal sat by her side the whole time singing to her. I was born May 18th, 1990. Mikah and I grew up as if we were sisters. The year she turned thirteen she was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. The doctors did not want to scare her too bad with the diagnosis, but looking back now they should have. Mikah kept eating what she wanted and gaining more weight. By the time Mikah turned twenty-one her doctors did not like the way her body was causing her pain. A few months after she turned twenty-one Mikah suffered a server diabetic attack.

In the Time article “Teen Depression and Anxiety: Why the Kids Are Not Alright,” the author, Susanna Schrobsdorff, discusses the current generation’s increase in mental health disorders, specifically anxiety and depression. Schrobsdorff states a major cause of these disorders is the generation’s inability to find a “firm line between their real and online world”. The article uses statistics from studies, and the experience of several human sources, to strengthen the authors claim and give real world perspective of how mental disorders affect not only the person with the mental disorder, but also their family.

Although neither of the instances: the young adult patient with a DKA episode, nor my instructor is an adolescent or a child, I decided to explore type I diabetes in adolescents and children because this is the development stage where most adolescents and children assume certain responsibilities. This is the stage where parents would like their children to have a role-play in their self-management of type 1 diabetes.

Curson,D. & Sharkey, S.(2006) ‘Out of the mouths of babes’: Drawing upon siblings’ experiences to develop a therapeutic board game for siblings and children with a chronic illness. Clinical Psychology Forum, 159, 36-38

In addition, this means family support has improved due to knowledgeable studies conducted on new mothers and the realization that fathers are also suffering from postpartum depression and family support groups. Where as in the past mother’s where the only ones treated. For instance in an health article “Studies have shown that most US adults, including parents, have limited health literacy [3]; that is, large proportions performed poorly on health-related literacy tasks such as filling out an insurance form.”(Smith) By these researcher conducting these studies have now led the thought of

She illuminates in her strongest argument how often, the unaffected sibling becomes the target of the affected sibling when he or she lashes out in anger. Parents and the affected sibling have support and their voices are heard, but the unaffected sibling often has no support system to cope with this situation although they too spend their entire lives impacted by the actions of the affected sibling. Also, Sweigert discusses how this lack of inclusion of support and research can prevent their ability to fully appreciate the unique circumstances which autistic siblings face daily and even long term. Because neurotypical siblings often become primary caregivers later in life for many autistic siblings, it is crucial that siblings are a big part of the research and services aimed towards improving the lives and lifestyles of the affected sibling. In her weakest argument, Sweigert discusses that neurotypical siblings may not understand why their siblings exhibit certain behaviors due to the exclusion in research and

In the first study Wittenberg, Saada, and Prosser (2013) explore how illness affects family members by using an internet

In today’s world, parents have an abundance of worries when it comes to their children. Drugs, bad grades, and pre marital sex are just some things that may plague a parent with sleepless nights. But even on the worst of those nights of worry, most parents can’t imagine that their child could face an illness. Not just a runny nose or seasonal flu, but an illness that would affect their child throughout his or her entire life. Diabetes is a disease without a cure, and one that more, and more children have to live with.

Since at least 1982, the internet has provided a new venue for support group (John Schappi, 2012). Discussing online self-help support groups as the precursor to e-therapy, Martha Ainsworth notes that "the enduring success of these groups has firmly established the potential of computer-mediated communication to enable discussion of sensitive personal issues. For example Email, Usenet and internet bulletin boards have become popular methods of communication for peer-to-peer self-help groups and facilitated support groups. Support groups have long offered companionship and information for people coping with diseases or disabilities, and online situational oriented groups have expanded to offer support for people facing various life circumstances, especially those involving personal and cultural relationships (Van Brunt, 2008).

The family unit across the globe is valued by almost all cultures as the most important social structure in which humans form the tightest bonds. Now significant evidence to suggest that within the family structure the relationship and interaction between siblings is the most impactful relationship of a human’s lifetime. Researchers have only recently become interested in the unique relationship between siblings. Siblings have been found to advance one another’s social, emotional, and cognitive development (Mcguire and Shanahan, 2010). Researchers are now are posing the question, “Are our relationships with our siblings the most important of all?”