The impact of illness in adolescence and coping behavior

The emotional impact of serious illness or injury bears just as much potential for being disabling to an adolescent as does the condition itself. It is also these concerns and the possibilities for difficult behavior on the part of teenagers on the ward which frequently cause staff members to feel at a loss when caring for this reputedly difficult age group. But if one carefully examines the specific developmental stresses of illness and the various coping mechanisms by which the youth may counter them, a logical management approach emerges. To a large degree this approach depends on compensation, intellectualization, displacement and constructive denial but also recognizes that destructive denial, regression and projection do normally and naturally occur at various points in the course of illness and hospitalization and that panic and acting out may also readily occur, but less frequently. The deterence of the more deleterious responses and promotion of the more felicitious dependes on a ward setting which provides for the adolescent's growing need for independence and self-determination; for continued reassurance about body image integrity, for resumption of mastery and control; and for the maintenance or restoration of his sense of self-worth. These goals are achieved by encouraging the youth to be an active partner in his own care; to share in decisions made about his condition; to pursue just as much independent self-management as he can; to actively engage in establishing a peer group with other adolescents in the ward; to continue with his education, socialization, personal interests and outside peer contacts as much as possible; and to feel that the staff respects his dignity and privacy, likes him as a person and appreciates the courage and effort with which he is facing a difficult time.