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Ordering
The Blissful Brain
The Blissful Brain is published
by Gaia Thinking. For more information on how to order your
copy, please click
here.
Guardian
G2: Mind over matter by Andy Darling
"Neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja has
proven meditation does more than clear your head, it can put
both halves of your brain to work, improving your concentration,
memory, and decision-making...". To read more, please
click
here.
Upcoming
talk: Yoga Ananda, Reigate, Surrey on Friday the 4th of June
Shanida Nataraja will be speaking at a seminar
on The Blissful Brain on Friday, 04th June 2010 at
19:30 at Yoga Ananda Ltd. 46 Albert Road North, Reigate, Surrey,
RH2 9EL. For more information, please click
here.
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Quality
of Life
The
increased awareness of the integral link between body and
mind in the West is reflected in the greater emphasis being
placed in healthcare on the psychological wellbeing of the
patient. It is widely accepted that the personal burden of
physical illness cannot be fully captured by the sole use
of objective measures of disease, such as tumour size or blood
pressure. Illness is known to have important social consequences
and therefore it is crucial that the assessment of the burden
of physical illness also encompasses psychosocial factors,
such as functional impairment, difficulty in fulfilling personal
and family responsibilities, financial burden, and diminished
cognitive abilities. Conversely, in addition to dealing with
the psychosocial impact of their illness, patients with mental
health disorders also often present with a variety of physical
health conditions. Any treatment strategy must therefore address
both the psychological and physical issues at hand in order
to effectively improve the patient’s sense of well-being and
overall health.
The
concept of quality of life (QoL) has been applied to a wide
range of disciplines, including social sciences, economics,
and medicine. In recent years, there has been an increasing
emphasis placed by healthcare professionals on the use of
QoL as a measure of the impact of an illness or medical intervention
on a patient’s sense of well-being. The concept of QoL encompasses
the broad range of factors that give rise to an individual’s
sense of well-being. It therefore includes an assessment of
the impact of disease on the patient’s ability to perform
activities of daily living, such as working and cleaning,
the impact of the disease on the patient’s social functioning
and their relationships, the impact of the disease on the
patient’s mood and sense of psychological well-being, and,
increasingly, the impact of the disease on the patient’s spiritual
health and their outlook on life. QoL has therefore become
a popular and valuable measure in healthcare evaluations.
Treatments are no longer merely evaluated in terms of their
effectiveness or safety; the impact of treatment on the patient’s
QoL is now an equally important measure of treatment effect.
The greater emphasis on patient well-being and QoL has been
accompanied by a shift towards a more patient-focused approach
to disease management. In the UK, the NHS describes itself
“as a service that exists for the patient and which is
designed to meet the needs of the individual receiving care
and treatment”. Policy documents stress the importance
of tailoring treatments to meet the needs of the individual
patient. No one treatment fits all, and therefore the treatment
plan for a particular disease must be devised on a patient-by-patient
basis. Patients also require different levels of support.
Some patients have good coping mechanisms and adapt relatively
easily to a diagnosis of physical disease, and therefore require
limited support. Others can become significantly depressed
or anxious following the same diagnosis and therefore require
supportive, psychological interventions in addition to the
prescribed treatments that actively target their disease.
Furthermore, patients also require differing amounts of information
about their disease and its treatment. In the age of the internet,
many patients proactively seek out information about their
disease and guidance on its appropriate management online.
Others require more extensive verbal and written information
during their meetings with the healthcare professionals involved
in their care, and the patient education delivered should
therefore match the educational needs of the individual patient.
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