Coping, Social Support, and Adaptation to Chronic Illness
Abstract
Western Journal of Nursing Research, 1992,14(2), 211-224 Coping, Social Support, and Adaptation to Chronic Illness Nancy E. White Judith M. Richter Carol Fry According to the Bureau of the Census (1986), 110 million people in the United States are affected with one or more chronic illnesses. The recognition of the importance of the psychosocial dimensions of chronic illness has been slow to emerge in modern health care, partly because health care has evolved around a disease-centered medical treatment and cure model. The individual's capacity to adapt to illness over a long period of time has a direct effect on the successful outcome of the illness (Adams & Lindemann, 1974). Feldman (1974) described adaptation to chronic illness as coming to terms with the reality of the illness as a state of being, discarding false hope and destructive hopelessness, and restructuring the environment in which one now functions. Adaptation implies the reorganization and acceptance of self so that there is a meaning and purpose to living that goes beyond the limi- tations imposed by the illness. The nursing profession will be increasingly involved in the care of the chronically ill. Nurses will be responsible for understanding the adaptation process and