[libribook.com] Traumatic Scar Tissue Management 1st Edition

Self Care
Self care as an all-encompassing term captures those practices and activities we
engage in:
• When healthy, as a means to prevent illness and reap all the benefits of living a
healthy lifestyle
• During acute illness/injury, to speed the healing process and decrease the
incidence of complications or recurrence
• During chronic illness/injury, to help manage and minimize the impact and
support good quality of life.
Generally, with recently acquired/acute injuries, the client may be inexperienced,
whereas health professionals are more experienced or well-versed in the acute
presentation, requiring the professional to guide the client (Holman & Lorig
2004). Assisting the client to become more knowledgeable and skilled will
impact the effectiveness of their selfcare measures.
With chronic presentations, however, those roles may no longer apply. Often the
client is accustomed to their circumstances, living in their body each and every
day; therefore, the client needs to be engaged as a more active partner, applying
his or her knowledge to the process of developing sound selfcare strategies –
although, initially, the client may need assistance with how to engage as an
effective participant (Holman & Lorig 2004).
Important outcomes of self care include the maintenance of good health and
wellbeing; illness/injury management; and improved quality of life.
Additionally, an increase in the client’s perceived control over the illness or
injury and a decrease in the anxiety, often associated with chronic presentations,
is also desirable. Such patient-centered outcomes are of primary importance and
ought to be the primary goal in all forms of health care. There is also a growing
body of literature suggesting that improved self care can decrease
hospitalization, cost and mortality – capturing the attention of health economists
(Lucini et al. 2005, Malmstrom et al. 2008, Riegel et al. 2012).
As massage therapists (MTs), our role is to assist the client with functional
recovery and his/her capacity to return to previous activities and support their