Health Psychology in Clinical Practice - Essay Example

Health Psychology in Clinical Practice College: Health Psychology in Clinical Practice Health psychology is the understanding of the how behavioral, cultural and psychological factors impact play role in define a person’s wellbeing. Apart from physical wellness, it is clear that there is a strong mind-body relationship that affects the wellbeing of the people. Therefore, is crucial for medical practitioners to understand the way the mind and body connect to be able to handle complex needs of the society there need to serve. In podiatry, the clinical professionals have a great challenge in dealing with complex physical problems that emanate from behavioral factors. Therefore, practitioners in this field have a role to understand to concept of health psychology to address the problems of the community they serve. This helps them to understand their patients better and allows them to find the best ways to address issues that arise within the patients. Podiatry, being a sensitive area, demands high level of understanding and experiences in handling the psychological needs of the people. This article discusses the importance of health psychology in clinical practices, specifically in podiatry where there exists complex patients’ needs. In the history of medicine, research has come into a conclusion that there is a great relationship between the mind and the body. As a result, psychologists have come into a conclusion that is an active interaction between the body and the mind and this is what defines the human beings behavior. There is a great relationship between what people think and the way they behave. In treatment, the patients’ behavior has some relationship with their mental processes. On this note, understanding the human mind allows the clinicians to understand the behavior of a patient. Psychologists point out that the way people behave is much controlled by the mind (Linton & Shaw, 2011). For example, anorexia is both a mental diet-related disorder that results from changing eating habits. A person who diets so as to lose their weight may end up suffering from anorexia. Anorexia is condition that develops from psychological stress that develops when a person develops a negative attitude towards being plump. At the end, their mind becomes disoriented and they may end adding weight rather than losing it as they intend to do. In Podiatry, the clinicians have to understand the way the physical disorders in their patients link to their mental disorders to provide efficient care to their clients (Mandy, Lucas & Lucas, 2009). Failing to understand the patient’s mind-body connection will limit the professional’s treatment of the problems. Defining health is an issue that has drawn a lot of attention among many scholars. The complexity of the human mind and body makes it a complex issue to define health. The World Health Organization defines health as state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely absence of disease. This implies that any imperfection in the human body, be it physical or psychological, qualifies a person to be unhealthy. This is an issue that has drawn criticism as most people feel that this is an ideal definition of health and that this does not apply to the real human being (Lee, Arthur & Avis, 2008). If this definition was to be applicable, majority of human beings would be unhealthy. However, this definition clearly shows the connection between the mental health and physical health that makes them have a direct connection. The critics of this definition define health as the absence of a disease, which interfere with normal body process of human beings. The public often go for this definition and if majority of them are asked will point out that they can are healthy just because they have no disease. However, it is clear that some behavioral diseases such as obesity could be diseases that most human beings are unconscious about. Some limbs diseases emanate from their mind disorders and lack of physical activity (Lucas & Lloyd, 2005). On this note, although there are many definitions of health and illness, it is clear that the health of a person depends on their physical, mental and social wellness. Clinical knowledge and experiences helps a practitioner to establish a close relationship with their clients to be able to understand the problems of the client. According to the theories of health psychology, the ability of a health practitioner to establish a close relationship with their clients determines their ability to come up with a clear solution to the problem (Watterson, 2007). To achieve this, it is crucial for the clinical officer to appeal to the psychology of their patient, allow them to relax as they provide information regarding their illness. Patients who are psychologically prepared will provide enough information regarding their illness. The ability of the clinical practitioner to get their employee on board may influence their ability to achieve treatment. Patients are likely to open up when the practitioner uses a collaborative approach. For instance, a practitioner should be able to listen and appreciate the ideas of the patient, before providing their own (Ley, 2008). This will psychologically allow the client be more responsive and to understand the right form of treatment. This is the reason why podiatrists need to understand the value of health psychology and the way they can apply it to support their treatment methods. The way an individual interprets and responds to symptoms of illness is crucial for clinical practitioner. The theories of health psychology point out that the personalities and cultural differences define the way different people recognize and interprete symptoms of diseases (SchwabReese, Pittsinger & Yang, 2012). While other people are likely to link the slightest symptoms to a serious disease, others may be ignorant of more serious symptoms. Research shows that people with neurotic personalities are likely to notice and report symptoms of diseases more quickly that non-neurotic people. Hypochondriacs are more worried about normal body symptoms and may even undergo a medical test for such signs. Therefore, they are more likely to receive medical often than those with opposite personalities. The same way, the culture of an individual affects the frequency of noticing and interpreting symptoms of illness. For instance, research shows that Anglos report infrequent symptoms while Mexicans only report frequently occurring symptoms. Also, mental awareness of a particular disease will make a person more conscious to that disease and may end up thinking that they have such a disease. For example, when a medical student learns about a disease, they are keener and even suspect that they have the disease at the slightest symptom (Friedman, 2006). Those who are unaware of a disease may interprete serious symptoms of a disease as normal body processes. On this note, it is crucial for the practitioners to understand the way individuals interpret symptoms to provide efficient care for them. Finally, it is crucial for podiatrists to understand how life style and physical factors affect the life of their patients. In podiatry, lifestyles affect the health of the people and most diseases that require this kind of treatment are lifestyle-related. For instance, the limbs disorders are a result of lack of physical exercises. Today, the increase in formal employment has led to increase in lifestyle related diseases. Most office works spend most of their time seated and have busy schedules that do not leave ample time for them to engage in physical exercise (Street, 2013). This body inactivity leads to limb diseases, which are increasing each day and podiatrists have to find ways to solve them. Other lifestyle related diseases emanate from the increase in poor eating habits within the community. As fast foods become more common today, individuals have resorted to these kinds of eating behaviors. Consequently, they develop serious diseases such as gout, and obesity, which are becoming serious diseases in the world today (Gurung, 2010). On this note, the lifestyles of the people impact on the clinical practice and the practitioners have a challenge to understand the way forward in addressing lifestyle-related diseases. In conclusion, health psychology is an important branch of medicine that is applicable in every aspect healthcare. Health psychology helps clinical professionals to understand the way physical, mental and behavioral factors influences the healthiness of the community. In delivering service to the community, it is crucial to understand the mind-body relationships as they impact the way clients participate in treatment. The ability of a health professional to understand this relationship will help them to solve the patients’ problems more effectively. In providing treatment, health psychology helps professionals in understanding the patients’ needs and working with them together to reach an amicable solution to the problem of the patient. The behaviors and lifestyles of the people are important to health psychologists as they are linked to wide range of health disorders. Diseases such as diabetes, obesity and gout are linked to eating behaviors and their general lifestyles. Therefore, it is the role of podiatrists to address such problems and to identify strategies through which they can help their clients to live lifestyles and acquire behaviors that do increase their risk of contracting diseases. Therefore, health psychology provides a basis for podiatrists to inject efficiency in their operation in their endeavor to develop a healthy public. References Friedman, H. S. (2006). Foundations of Health Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Gurung, R. A. R. (2010). Health psychology: A cultural approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Lee, L. L., Arthur, A., & Avis, M. (2008). Using self-efficacy theory to develop interventions that help older people overcome psychological barriers to physical activity: A discussion paper. International journal of nursing studies, 45(11), 1690-1699. Ley, P. (2008). Communicating with patients: Improving communication, satisfaction and compliance. Croom Helm. Linton, S. J., & Shaw, W. S. (2011). Impact of psychological factors in the experience of pain. Physical therapy, 91(5), 700-711. Lucas, K., & Lloyd, B. B. (2005). Health promotion: Evidence and experience. London: SAGE. Mandy, A., Lucas, K., & Lucas, J. (2009). Podiatry: Case-based psychology. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell. Schwab Reese, L. M., Pittsinger, R., & Yang, J. (2012). Effectiveness of psychological intervention following sport injury. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 1(2), 71-79 Street Jr, R. L. (2013). How clinician–patient communication contributes to health improvement: Modeling pathways from talk to outcome. Patient education and counseling, 92(3), 286-291. Watterson, A. (2007). Health Promotion: Evidence and Experience‐By Kevin Lucas and Barbara Lloyd and Health Promoting Practice: The Contribution of Nurses and Allied Health Professionals‐Edited by Angela Scriven. Health & Social Care in the Community, 15(2), 184-185. . Read More