Diabetes and End-of-Life Issues essay

Traditionally, the treatment of diabetes, being complicated by end-of-life issues, is quite a serious problem healthcare professionals can face in their practice. This is why it is necessary to pay a particular attention to patients having such problems. In this respect, it should be said that the patient Larissa Maria Benetiz needs a particular attention and effective treatment since she has adult onset diabetes, which is aggravated by a number of complications and related diseases, such as diabetic neuropathy, anemia, multiple pathologic fractures, hyperparathyroidism, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. Moreover, due to diabetic complications, the patient is a right-foot amputee that limits her physical activities considerably that can have very negative consequences to her physical health and undermines the stability of her psychological state increasing the problem of end-of-life issues.

Obviously, this 74 year old patient needs attention from the part of healthcare specialists as well as from the part of members of her family. The basic goal of care providers should be the support and attention to the patient’s needs and interests. To put it more precisely, both healthcare professionals and members of the family should concentrate their efforts not only on the physical health of Larissa Maria Benetiz but also on her psychological state. In such a situation counseling and psychological help may be quite effective and should be supportive to the medication treatment of the patient. This means that the basic strategies in the treatment of the patient is the medication treatment to support her physical health and psychological help from the part of healthcare professionals and members of her family to support her psychological state so that she could avoid such problems as profound depression that may potentially lead to suicidal inclinations if the patient feels abandoned (Rother, 2007).

Speaking about the treatment of the patient, it is possible to recommend involving Larissa Maria Benetiz in conversations, as well as in some activities, which are affordable to her, in order to make her feel a part of the community. What is more, this will make her feel that she is still able to cooperate with other people and, thus, be a part of the social group. In this respect, it is necessary to underline that care providers should pay a particular attention to their style of communication with the patient since she should not feel any sort of inferiority nor she should feel the lack of physical abilities to participate in some common activities.

At the same time, taken into consideration the numerous problems provoked by diabetes, it is necessary to develop a diet that will meet the needs of the patient and will not deteriorate her physical health. To put it more precisely, the patient should limit the consumption of fat and eat a large amount of fiber and whole grain that will be quite useful to minimize the negative impact of diabetes and the progress of the disease (Genuth, 2006). Also the patient should avoid the negative impact of some products that may be dangerous to her health in case of consumption, such as alcohol, products leading to the increasing blood pressure, etc. (Eberhart, 2004).   In other words, diet is of a paramount importance to her.

Furthermore, it is necessary to remember about physical activities that are quite useful in the treatment of diabetes.

For the patients is a right-foot amputee, she could not afford walks and other activites of that sort but, instead, it is possible to recommend spending more time outdoors so that the patient could breath fresh air, receive new positive feelings and emotions from observation of nature, for instance.

Naturally, the medication treatment is also important to the patient with diabetes and it is even essential. Obviously, Larissa Maria Benetiz needs to take insulin and follow the diet suggested above. At the same time, the patient needs to be very careful about her diet and the products she eats. She also has to pay a particular attention to self-control that implies not only diet but also regular control of her physical state, such as blood pressure, for instance. In this respect, the help of healthcare providers and members of the family will be extremely important because Larissa Maria Benetiz may have certain difficulties with self-control since it will be quite difficult physically to her and the assistance of a healthcare professional or a member of her family will be quite helpful, when the patient needs to measure her blood pressure, for instance (Rother, 2007).

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that Larissa Maria Benetiz needs attention and support of healthcare professionals as well as of her family. The latter is particularly important in dealing with end-of-life issues because the patient is in quite a difficult physical state that inevitably effects her psychology. This is why she needs to feel the support of people that are important to her and that are really meaningful in her life. In such a way, the psychological help and support should naturally accompany the medication treatment, proper diet and physical activities, which are available to the patient to make her treatment more effective and her life more interesting.



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