Long-Term Illness Care

Diabetes is one of the long-term diseases of the UK. People with diabetes can not produce enough insulin. Over the past 30 years, people with long-term illness such as diabetes have learned how to lead their illness, and the government is investing. In addition to considering taking medicine in the same way as before, people want to consider diet therapy and exercise, manage blood glucose levels and lipid levels in blood, and want to minimize high-level complications thinking about. People changed from passive to actively and learned to manage diabetes.

As patients develop complicated long-term illness, their medical care becomes overly complicated and they become difficult to manage with health and social care professionals (DH 2010a). These patients suffer from various health and social care difficulties. Because of its vulnerability, simple problems rapidly exacerbate their condition, increasing the risk of unplanned hospitalization or long-term hospitalization (DH 2010a). This is especially true for elderly people. The Evercare model primarily serves the elderly with long-term illness and classifies them according to their long-term, healthy depth and need for support. The third category includes those with very complex long-term conditions. This high-risk patient population also requires a comprehensive overview of the need for its complete health and social care, as well as the superior management of that particular disorder.

As age rises, the health condition begins to change, it is more prone to illness and chronic illness. Today, care for people with long-term condition, especially the elderly, is responsive and intervention is usually done only after events and long-term illness worsen. A systematic change in Scotland's NHS is aimed at providing comprehensive, cooperative and preventive health and social care systems, especially for patients with chronic disease (NHS Scotland, 2007).

Long term condition (also called chronic condition) can be defined as the need for ongoing treatment and management of health problems over many years or decades (WHO, 2012). Long-term condition can sometimes be called chronic disease. It is a disease that lasts more than a year, and it can have a big impact on people's lives. Therefore, there is a possibility that it leads to those who need continuous support and care. Long-term conditions affect not only elderly people who may be affected, but also children and adults. It is not limited to physical illness, but may include a range of mental illness. The most common long-term conditions include diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, chronic pain, arthritis, some mental health problems, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (NHS, 2012).