Chronic Care Model

Self-management, according to Bos-Touwen et al. (2015), is a form of intervention that is made to fit each situation in clinical practice related to chronic conditions. It is also becoming one of the interventions that look promising in changing the heightened statistics of those experiencing chronic conditions. By lessening and improving chronic care, self-management has become a topic of study (Bos-Touwen et al. 2015).
As an assistant in nursing caring for the aged population, I was able to witness chronic conditions. Since being exposed to this, I see that there is a wide variety of care to meet the needs of each patient. The Chronic Care Model, or CCM, may be the potential solution to caring for older people, according to Hickman, Rolley
and Davidson (2010). The CCM involves a number of factors to improve health care and care provided by health professionals to improve the wellbeing of those with chronic conditions.
To be able to fully explain what “self-management” is, several studies have provided an explanation.
It is the ability of an individual to manage one’s symptoms and everything that goes along with a chronic condition (Thirsk & Clark 2013; Warwick et al. 2010). They argue that it is important to health care professionals to instill and promote self-management. One of the factors of CCM is having a positive policy environment. In a study by Havas, Bonner and Douglas (2015), they say that the positive support of people in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) effectively integrated self-management into their
lives.
Disler, Gallagher and Davidson (2011) wrote a study about patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in order to analyse the factors of self-management that aid the individuals to adapt to their chronic condition.
As with other chronic conditions, COPD can be unpredictable disease that can easily affect any individual who has it whether in terms of social function, quality of life or physical function (Disler, Gallagher & Davidson 2011). Furthermore, stigma of the condition may affect the patients’ emotional wellness. Particularly, with the patients feeling and knowing like they are in control is why self-management is effective in providing positive outcomes in chronic care. With internal and external influences of chronic diseases, the ability for patients to fully integrate self-management may be complex (Disler, Gallagher & Davidson 2011). However, with the help of health care professionals and CCM, progress can be made to close the gap on the struggle of having a chronic condition. By acquiring knowledge, adopting positive behaviours, proper implementation of treatment and managing the impact of the chronic condition, healthcare professionals and patients should work together in order to achieve the desired health
outcome.
Chronic illness in itself is complex as it is caused by a number of things and can worsen overtime. Australian statistics in regards to the progress in preventing chronic diseases have seemingly improved (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2012), but it still covers over one million Australians that still need health care assistance with proper care. With the integration of the CCM in health sectors, patients will be provided “positive policy environments, interdisciplinary care collaboration, evidence-based practice, an emphasis on self-management strategies and empowered communities,” which are just the essentials for creating holistic and effective care for older adults (Hickman, Rolley & Davidson 2010). Schulmann-Green et al. (2012) compounded several studies to be able to combine which processes of self-management were more useful to be able to directly help and improve health care for those with chronic conditions. With the result of three categories, Schulmann-Green et al. (2012) were able to provide clinical practice better knowledge on which parts of the CCM worked. Overtime, the recognition of these processes could be integrated into the clinical setup.