Shifting Perspective Model Paper

Chronic Illness and the Shifting Perspective Model
Introduction
Being diagnosed with an illness, especially a chronic illness, can result in gaining a negative outlook on life and feelings of stress and vulnerability for most individuals. Chronic illness is defined as an illness that has a slow onset and continued for long periods of time. These types of illnesses require continuous treatment and typically do not have a definite cause (Ambrosio, L, et al., 2015). Osteoporosis, cancer, and diabetes are some examples of chronic illnesses. Individuals adopt various lifestyle changes in order to live with their illness; these lifestyles are not always linear and they might find themselves shifting between them. Barbara L. Paterson (2001) uses the Shifting Perspectives Model to explain two ways individuals can live with their chronic illness and the shifts that may occur. Interventions such as (one) and (two) can assist the client in better managing their illness. This paper will examine and analyze the challenges of living with chronic illness, the Shifting Perspective Model and interventions that can used to help clients achieve an optimistic outlook about life and
Clients who live with wellness in the foreground make an effort to balance their illness and their daily lives. They don’t see themselves as being ‘victims of circumstance’ but as ‘creators of circumstance’ (Paterson, B., 2001). Those living this way focus their emotional, psychosocial state. Clients who live with illness in the foreground focus on the pathological aspect of their illness. They research the illness and attempt to learn as much as they can. This lifestyle gives them the opportunity to come to terms with their illness and is typically seen in those who are newly diagnosed (Paterson, B.,