Page 224 - Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice ( PDFDrive )

The Impact of Social Support on Health 199

the patient to be given more information and become more
involved with their treatments. In some cases patients may
avoid dealing with their wound situation, in this case it may
be helpful for the health care professional to help the patient
face the facts that their wound needs treatment to heal
(Vermeiden et al. 2009 ). It is important that health care pro-
fessionals strengthen patients coping strategies as this may
reduce stress and potentially improve healing.

The Impact of Social Support on Health

Living with a leg ulcer can have a detrimental impact on an

individual’s daily life (see Chap. 1 ), which can leave the
patient with feelings of being trapped, living a socially
restricted life, and on the whole generally feeling socially
isolated (Jones et al. 2008a ; Parker et al. 2012 ). Indeed,
patients can suffer from extreme social isolation as a conse-
quence of their wound, and this has been linked to a number
of factors both psychosocial and medical: including, malo-
dour, lack of mobility, exudate, altered body image, pain and
worry over further injury to their leg (e.g. Persoon et al. 2004 ;
Parker et al. 2012 ; Herber et al. 2007 ). Furthermore, it has
been suggested that patients with chronic leg ulcers often feel
as if they are not fully part of society because of poor mobil-
ity, and a lack of empathy and peer support from others in
their local community (Brown 2005a , b ; Maida et al. 2009 ).
Similarly, researchers have suggested that an individual may
be embarrassed due to exudate and malodour, which others
may perceive as poor hygiene, all of which can result in fur-
ther social isolation and consequently reduced social support
(Douglas 2001 ; Hopkins 2004a ). Overall, this has negative
consequences for the individual- including less socialising,
which reduces the number of social contacts they may have,
which again results in further isolation and a lack of social
support.
Research has shown that supportive social relationships can
improve health and psychological well-being. This relationship