When children are diagnosed with chronic illness, parents often have to become full-time caregivers. This, compounded with work and other life stressors, lead to depressive symptoms and stress in parents.

Grief in parents caring for chronically-ill children

 A large percentage of people have Chronic Illness; the chronic illnesses have significant psychosocial ramifications for both the affected person and their family members. This in return creates new challenges for the field of psychology.


The Impacts of Chronic Illness

- Health-care Utilization
- Reduction of Activities
- Temporary Disability


Impact of Chronic Illnesses

Due to an ever evolving social and economic world, healthcare needs have changed drastically over the decades. These changes have influenced the lived experience of people with chronic illness and disability. This is because these individuals have an added struggle of not being perfectly healthy. A growing body of research focuses on the relationships between society, the self, disability, and illness. 

Chronic Illness, Expert Patients and Care Transition

- Physical Chronic Disease
- Mental Chronic Disease
- Comorbid Chronic Disease

Forms of Chronic Diseases

Chronic illnesses (also referred to as chronic disease or condition) is a condition that lasts for a year or more and requires frequent medical care. Chronic conditions can effect or limit the activities in one's daily life.

Santa Clara University

Syracuse University

While not all disabilities can fit neatly into one category, these categories generally encapsulate the types of disabilities through the Impairment Dimension.

-	Cognitive / Intellectual 
-	Chronic Illnesses 
-	Developmental
-	Mental 
-	Physical / Sensory
-	Speech / Communication


Types of Disabilities

These are the various classification of disease based on the stage of the disease.
-	Acute Disease
-	Chronic Disease
-	Clinical Disease Stage
-	Subclinical Disease Stage
-	Refractory Disease
-	Flare-Up
-	Progressive Disease
-	Terminal Disease Stage
-	Recovery Stage



Categories of Disease Stages

Health Psychology Wikipedia References

Abnormalities in the development of the nervous system that are influenced by both our genes and the environment. Developmental disorders commonly manifest as behavioral abnormalities.

Developmental Disorders

Physical and sensory disabilities are defined by physical or sensory impairments to a person's functioning.

Physical/Sensory disabilities

Developmental or acquired impairments to an individual’s speech, language, or hearing. Some individuals may face impairments in more than one area.

Speech/Communication Disabilities

Also called psychological disorders, these are disorders rooted in mental thought patterns that impair the person's functioning, with specific disorders having their own disgnostic criteria. 

Mental Disorders/Mental Illnesses

Chronic Illness

These include a variety of disabilities that affect cognitive/intellectual ability and functioning.

Cognitive/Intellectual disabilities

Invisible disability is an umbrella term for disabilities that cannot be seen by others and interfere with day-to-day functioning, but do not have a physical manifestation. This "unseen" characteristic is central to the challenges these individuals face in various environments. 

Invisible Disability

An acute disease typically has a rapid and severe onset, but only lasts a short amount of time which is usually a few days to under a month. They can be treated with either short-term care or medication and often result in a full recovery after some time. 

Acute Disease

The term clinical disease is used to define the stage of the disease at which signs and symptoms begin to appear. This is used to separate from the stage of (subclinical) disease that only indicates a state of having been inflicted upon the patient. 

Clinical Disease Stage

The term subclinical disease refers to the period before the presence of signs and symptoms of a disease are recognized (clinical disease stage). This term can be synonymous to silent disease, silent stage, or asymptomatic disease.

Subclinical Disease Stage

Refractory disease indicates a resistance to efforts of treating a disease. The term is often used to indicate abnormal cases of patients that are resistant to otherwise typical treatment measures. 

Refractory Disease

A flare-up can be used to refer to either a recurrence of the symptoms and signs of the disease, or the onset of more severe symptoms and signs.

Flare-Up

A progressive disease is one where the expected course of the disease is a continual worsening of symptoms and signs that persist until the patient has reached a state of serious debility, organ failure, or death. Progressive diseases are often chronic diseases or degenerative diseases. 

Progressive Disease

The terminal stage of disease is loosely defined as the stage of actively dying. When death is an expected outcome, this term can be used to refer to any time of earlier disease process up to the point of death.

Terminal Disease Stage

The recovery stage occurs when the state of the patient actively engages in recuperation processes to heal. Examples of such can be the physical repairing of damaged organs and tissue and/or the resumption of system functions back to a healthy state.

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