TO BE AN ADOLESCENT AND SICKEN IN THE YOUTH'S AND FAMILY'S PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Objective:

This study seeks to highlight the experience of being an adolescent and concomitantly suffer a chronic condition. The study focuses on a teenager who experienced the establishment of a chronic condition due to concomitant aggravations -kidney disease and cancer during adolescence.

Methodology:

A comprehensive study modeled as a situational analysis of Life History was performed by means of in-depth interviews and field observations. The test subjects were a teenager suffering from a chronic disease and some of his family members.

Results:

By intertwining the realities of suffering a chronic condition and going through adolescence, we were able to understand the different stages of said chronic condition due to concomitant aggravations and its significant impact on the life of the teenager. Several conflicts emerged from this overlap of adolescence and disease due to physical, biological, behavioral, and social changes; which make such experience complex and unique.

Conclusion:

This understanding proves important to health professionals allowing them to holistically meet the needs of a developing human being and not only pay attention to the manifestations of the disease.