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Chronic Illness
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Cascading crises, resilience and social support within the onset and development of multiple chronic conditions

Dave Sells

Yale Program for Recovery & Community Health, Yale Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, david.sells{at}yale.edu

William H. Sledge

Yale Program for Recovery & Community Health, Yale Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Melissa Wieland

Advanced Center for Intervention and Services, Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

David Walden

Department of Psychology, Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California, USA

Elizabeth Flanagan

Yale Program for Recovery & Community Health, Yale Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Rebecca Miller

Yale Program for Recovery & Community Health, Yale Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Larry Davidson

Yale Program for Recovery & Community Health, Yale Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Objective: To describe and better understand adults' responses to the onset, accrual and influence of multiple chronic conditions and to social support in adapting to consequent difficulties.

Methods: Qualitative study of 33 adults with multiple chronic illnesses randomly sampled from an urban primary care clinic. Semi-structured interviews targeted retrospective accounts of illness onset, consequent loss, as well as current accounts of social support and adaptation. All interviews were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed and analysed according to established phenomenological procedures.

Results: Participants' responses revealed illness onset as a virtual cascade of medical, emotional and social hardships, leading to loss and subsequent adaptation through personal resilience and particularly, available social support. Participants also described patterns of adaptation punctuated by the felt need and rewards of providing care to others.

Discussion: The experience of multiple chronic illnesses has a distinct pattern of development and consequence, involving challenges to personal identity and the benefits of social support from and to others. Our results suggest that programmes addressing the needs of persons with multiple chronic conditions might tailor interventions in ways that maximally address their unique challenges.

Key Words: Illness development • Multiple chronic illnesses • Resilience • Social support

Chronic Illness, Vol. 5, No. 2, 92-102 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1742395309104166
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