The Unmet Needs Remain Unseen.

In October of 2009, I moved to South Carolina to live with my father and stepmother. When I first moved in with them, it was awkward because I had not seen my father in eleven years and my stepmother was someone I had never met.  It took a while to get used to having my father and stepmother in my life but I had learned to adjust to my new family. After things settled down my dad went back to work and I started school, but when I was not in school I spent most of my time getting to know my new stepmother, and we established a strong bond from the beginning. Among many things that I learned about my step mom, the fact that she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1999 and faced struggles from it every day made me curious about the disorder. I had never heard of this disorder, but I did learn from her that it was an incurable disorder. Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. This image below show what Multiple Sclerosis is and what it affects in the patient’s body. Although medical agencies are helping patients living with Multiple Sclerosis, they are not doing enough to help to meet their needs.

        

 The number of people that live with MS is approximately 2.5 million worldwide, which can seem like a great number; however, the people living with Multiple Sclerosis are struggling to find support financially and physically from government and healthcare professionals. (National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 2010) Unlike cancer which is a disease that many people have so the research to help find cures is greater, there is not a lot of research going on the help find cures that will help to benefit the patients. Most studies concentrate on needs assessment of MS patients in general, but do not highlight the severely affected subgroup. (Golla etal)  as shown below in the graph Top Countries by Multiple Sclerosis Rates shows that out of the one hundred ninety six countries in the world, the United States is ranked twelfth. Being ranked twelfth out of one hundred ninety six countries and lacking the means to provide proper care for the individuals live with MS is unacceptable. Also, the sheer lack of knowledge that individuals have about the MS ranges from poor to none, and this disease needs to be taught about due to the amount of people that live with Multiple Sclerosis is the world. (Trout)

           

The side effect of MS range from things as simple as coughing to this as major as losing use of body parts due to scaring of the never affected by their immune system attacking their healthily nerves. The effects of MS are mainly physical; however, some effects reach deeper and affect the patients’ mental state and well as their families. Many doctors recommends the families and patients’ with MS to attend group therapy to help the individuals to cope with the stress and strain of having to take care of a beloved family member with this disorder. (Golla etal) One major affect that many if not all MS patients experience are relapses. (Feys) Relapses are when the disorder reached a climax and attacks the body more which can lead to sudden onset paralysis, loss of hearing, and loss of vision.(Feys) The result of a extreme relapse can land the patient in the hospital where health care professionals. (Bennetto) Natural history studies suggest that relapses are associated with low levels of disability formation but do not contribute directly to more marked disability, whereas the development of progressive disease. (Bennetto)

Healthcare professionals are noticing that patients living with MS have unmet needs in five different categories psychological support, occupational therapy, speech therapy, palliative care, and physiotherapy and spiritual support. (Golla etal) Seeing as how healthcare professionals are noticing these subgroups that people living with Multiple Sclerosis are struggling in, immediate action needs to be put into place to help reach out these severely affected patients. These doctors need to find ways to better provide for their patients that are classified within this severely affected subgroup.(Golla)

.   Many people are unaware of Multiple Sclerosis and anything having to do with the disorder. This is due to the government not giving enough attention to this dieses while focusing more on others such as cancer, and aids. The only aid that the government does give to people living with MS is a small amount of Social Security, and this is only after they have been put through rigorous tests. (Bennetto)

Although some individuals and health care providers might argue that people in medical fields and the government are doing all they can to help patients living with Multiple Sclerosis, the facts outweigh the opinions. The government only provides a small amount of Social Security to people living with the disorder, and health care professionals are even noticing the lacking of attention in psychological support, occupational therapy, speech therapy, palliative care, and physiotherapy and spiritual support. Although the government does provide small amounts of Social Security, that is only when the individual is older, and does not begin to cover the medical bills that have accumulated between the date of diagnosis and the date when the benefits begin. There needs to be more done to help aid these suffering patients. These patients need to be paid more attention to, and government and healthcare professionals need to improve their quality of life.

Works Cited

Golla, Heidrun, Maren Galushko , and Holger Pfaff. "Unmet Needs of Severely Affected

Multiple Sclerosis Patients: The Health Professionals View." (2008): 28. Web. 24 May. 2012.

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Bennetto, L, J Burrow, H Saka, and J Cobby. "The relationship between relapse, impairment and

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Trout, Suzanna. “Multiple Sclerosis.” 21 February 2012.

Feys, P, D Gijbels, A Romberg, and C Santoyo. "Effect of time of day on walking." (2011): 16. Web. 24 May. 2012. < http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8a258b19-cc80-43ea-a302-500dc9b8a50e@sessionmgr14&vid=6&hid=15>.