Ill Children's Perception of Health Value. Research Conducted in Hospital Scholl in Puławy

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to analyse the ill children’s perception of health value.

Chronic illnesses are increasingly frequent not only amongst adults, they affect children as well. Such a situation has a detrimental impact on children’s mental life due to prolonged stress, which impair their ability to self- regulate and adapt. The attitudes that they adopt oftentimes display low self- esteem, children are convinced of their unprepossessing appearance and bad psycho- physical fitness. All this causes insecurity, indecisiveness, frustration and deprivation of needs. Long-lasting frustrative situations induce negative emotional reactions and lead to mental imbalance. The perception of one’s own illness is related to the period in which it occurred. If it commences in early childhood, it becomes a part of child’s life; in late childhood it triggers anxiety, anger and stress. Very often it hinders the realization of personal life goals and achieving success at school, in addition to that, educational difficulties arise and contact with peers is limited. The impact of illness on the development of an individual involves numerous stages, in which each stage results from the previous one and prepares for the following one. A necessary requirement for effective treatment of such special patients is to ensure the best adaptation conditions for inpatients. Being ill is one of many “activities” filling their life. In the time between malaise, they talk play, read, draw, argue and reconcile. They love and want to be loved. In this respect, they do not differ from their healthy peers. Shaping the attitudes toward illness is a slow and time-consuming process. Attitudes that we adopt stem from inviduall experience, emotional experience and perception of information. The only thing that causes more difficulties for them is everyday functioning, since it demands greater maturity, effort and responsibility.