Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Coping with chronic illness encapsulates both practical and emotional aspects of living life in relation to one's long-term health condition(s). Dominant health psychology approaches for understanding coping, which underpin a more recent policy discourse on 'self-management', focus sharply on the person affected by illness and potentially mask the influence of overarching social structure. In this paper we draw on qualitative interviews with 48 people living with long-term conditions (LTCs), in order to highlight the role that structural configurations such as healthcare systems may play in either helping or hindering people's efforts to cope with chronic illness. We argue that coping is a social process in which health and related services, situated within their wider political-economic contexts, play an active role in shaping people's attempts to live well with LTCs. More specifically, health systems are sites of social and cultural capital exchange that can differentially mobilise coping resources through access, continuity of care, and coordination across services. Whilst it is essential to recognise the personal agency of people living with chronic illness, it is also vital to acknowledge the underlying inequalities that affect the ways in which services can support such resourcefulness.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/1467-9566.12624

Type

Journal article

Journal

Sociol Health Illn

Publication Date

01/2018

Volume

40

Pages

130 - 145

Keywords

chronic illness, coping, health services, long-term conditions, qualitative interviews, social and cultural capital, Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Chronic Disease, Female, Health Services, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Qualitative Research, Self Care, Social Support, Socioeconomic Factors