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Chronic diseases present significant challenges to individual well-being, necessitating comprehensive management strategies that extend beyond medical treatments.
This was said by Ms. Elsie Whacha, a licensed Clinical Social Worker at Island Hospice and Healthcare who has over five years of social work experience in her presentation at the Pain Symposium organised by the Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZIMA) in Harare yesterday.
Island Hospice and Healthcare provides psychosocial support (PSS) to patients and their families which includes social, emotional, and spiritual components. It prepares patients and families for the end of life; facilitates will writing; provides bereavement and trauma counseling; conducts palliative care, bereavement, and trauma training as well as mentorship and supervision in palliative care, bereavement and trauma counselling to health professionals, community and village health workers and those with an interest in PC and Bereavement.
The institution also has experience and exposure in child protection, drug and substance abuse, child and family therapy, stress management, conflict resolution, and corporate and school mental wellness presentations.
“Chronic diseases present significant challenges to individual well-being, necessitating comprehensive management strategies that extend beyond medical treatments. The effective management of chronic diseases necessitates a multidisciplinary approach to managing total pain. Psychosocial support involves the management of emotional, social, spiritual, and legal influences that affect health behaviors and outcomes.
There are several causes of emotional pain. This includes the fear of pain and suffering arising from the breaking bad news (accidental disclosure). The announcement of cancers in the family may also cause the fear of death and dying – from diagnosis throughout treatment and so forth. Patients may have anger at both the illness and the failure to access treatment to cure it,” Whacha said.
Dr. Nomaqhawe Moyo, the organiser of the workshop from ZIMA said the Pain Symposium brings together different healthcare professionals who are passionate about relieving pain and suffering among their patients.
“The meeting is centred on the comprehensive interprofessional approach to pain management based on the modern biopsychosocial framework.” Dr. Moyo said.
Social pain is caused by the loss of job and income; loss of position in the family; loss of effectiveness in the community; and loss of body image among others.
It may be caused by loneliness at the time of diagnosis and disease progression; or marital challenges leading to distress and bitterness against families, spouses, or children.
Spiritual pain comes when one starts to weigh up the significance of life; feels guilty and the fear of death at the stages of diagnosis, treatment, and end of life.
Late referrals – where the disease has progressed, may lead to blame, especially failure from caregivers, who feel they may have neglected the patient. End-of-life preparations become challenging with late referrals: no time to prepare, complicated grief, legal issues i.e. will writing, wishes for family members, difficulties where relationship dynamics are complicated i.e. another family, child, etc.
Addressing the same gathering, Tinevimbo Matambanadzo, a patient health advocate and endometriosis awareness coach, said women suffer from almost all chronic pain conditions to a much greater extent than men.
“Additionally, women also suffer from female-specific pains; particularly in their pelvis, including period pain (dysmenorrhoea) and the pains associated with diseases such as endometriosis. Four in five women at times have felt that healthcare professionals are not listening to them,” Matambanadzo said.
According to statistics shared by Matambanadzo, 29% of women felt that their doctor dismissed their concerns during a healthcare appointment. On the other hand, 1 in 10 women faced discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics in healthcare while 21% of women reported that it was difficult to find doctors who explained things in a manner that was easy to understand.