Impact of Life Events on Individuals and Supportive Measures

Healthcare
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According to Nuske, Hoildsworth and Breen (2016 p.7-26), significant life events are the events
that occur in someone’s life with or without expectations. Such events usually have an impact on
the individual as they disrupt the usual activities causing a substantial change and readjustment.
They can have an impact on an individual either physically, psychologically or even
physiologically. Some examples of life events are divorce, illness, and injury, changing or losing
a job and even losing a loved one. These events can have a physical, physiological or
psychological impact on an individual depending on the type of an event but it can also have all
those impacts on an individual. For example, a person with a stroke or amputated body part will
have difficulties performing his daily activities as he usually does. He can also have
psychological stress on how he is going to adapt to the new life he is not used to (Baldwin 2017
p. 26). Impact also goes beyond this to the family members especially if the patient requires extra
care from them. In the case of fire tragedy at Grenfell Towers, most people lost their loved ones
and even family members. Coping with this unexpected tragedy could be very hard and therefore
they need support from multidisciplinary. Family members, the society and the government at
large have a role in helping these people overcome the losses they encountered. Although most
of the times, the focus on life events have focused on the negative side, there is a positive event
also. Such example is like receiving a job promotion, going on a trip, receiving an award or a
special price and also the birth of grandchildren.
Life events are the most common cause of stress in individuals. It is however believed that
certain events such as loss of a spouse causes a certain level of stress to individuals, it is how the
person copes with the stress that differs. This is mainly dependent on individual personalities and
how class the person was o the spouse. Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed a questionnaire
called the social readjustment rating scale to measure the level of stressful life events. The
questionnaire has 43 stressful life events which were awarded life change unit depending on the
trauma that was felt by a large number of participants used (Wethington 2016, p.103-108). For
example, a life event like the death of a spouse is given 100 life change unit, divorce 73 life
change units, responsibilities at work value of 29 and the lowest being a minor violation of the
law such as traffic tickets with a value of 11 life change units. The total scores of the change
units are added to get the level of stress basing on events experienced over a period of 12
months. If the total number for an individual is below 150 life change units, then the person has a
30% chance of suffering from stress. If the total is between 150 and 299, an individual has a 50%
chance of suffering from stress. Finally, a total of 300 life units and above indicates that an
individual has 80% chances of developing a stress-related illness. This scale is therefore
important in the management of patients with stress as the level of stress will determine the kind
of interventions to be used (Reddy et al 2017, pp. 1103-1123).
The life changes model stresses the fact that prolonged stress can have an impact on hour health.
They can be both positive and negative causes of stress. However, the possibility of a stressor to
cause illness is dependent on the level of the stress itself. According to Friedel et al (2017,
p.302), the life change model assumes that all changes in a person's life be it large or small,
desirable or non-desirable can be a stressor. Therefore, the accumulation of small changes may
cause an impact just as a major change could. Basing on the social readjustment rating scale that
was developed, the total life change units can be used to measure the possibility of an illness
occurrence and likely the number of health problems they are likely to be experienced. From the
research that was done, it showed that 93% of the infections diagnosed such as bone and muscle
injuries, psychosomatic illness and infections were from patients who had a total of 150 and

above life change units over the previous year. Therefore, this shows that there is a close
relationship between the level of stress and individuals health. The higher the life change score
the greater the chance of a person developing a more serious health condition (Praharso, Tear
and Cruwys 2017, pp.265-275). Moreover, the cumulative of minor crisis occurring over and
over can be a cause of a major illness. Even though stressful conditions have been found to
cause health issues, some individuals seem to be different. Personal characteristics and the
interpretation of the event may cause the difference. This is because some people have illnesses
which are not related to the stress of life events while others have a high value of life change unit
but they do not appear sick. Therefore, every individual should be handled differently depending
on their personalities, strengths, and weaknesses.
There are so many stressors in the environment which may be very difficult to remove them but
can be managed to maintain good health. Human bodies respond to stress in a certain way.
According to Townsend and Morgan (2017), general adaptation syndrome theory shows that the
body goes through some physiological changes when under stress. The body undergoes three
stages of change; the alarm reaction stage, resistance, and the exhaustion stage. Understanding
these stages will help to know both acute and chronic symptoms of stress. In the alarm reaction
stage, the initial manifestations are evident. The body prepares itself for a fight or a flight to
protect oneself from dangerous situations. At this stage, the heart rate increases, adrenal gland
releases cortisol hormone, and adrenaline levels rises hence boosting energy. According to
Peterson (2018), the resistance stage is marked by self-body repair. The amount of cortisol
produced is reduced, the heart rate and blood pressure drop to normal levels. Even though the
blood pressure and heart rate have normalized at this stage, the body remains in an alert. If the
stressor is removed completely, the body continues to repair itself and the heart rate and blood
pressure come back to the normal level before the stress. It the stressor is not removed and the
stressful situation continues for an extended period of time, the body remains in high alert,
adapts and learn to live in a higher stress level. The person may think that he or she is managing
the stress well but the stress hormone remains elevated in the bloodstream which can lead to
exhaustion phase is it persists for a long period of time. The most common signs at this stage are
irritability, frustration and poor concentration (Marek, Schaufeli and Maslach 2017).
The exhaustion stage occurs due to prolonged stress period. The body at this stage has no
strength to fight stress as its physical, mental and emotional resources have already been drained.
The body gives up making the person hopeless. Fatigue, anxiety, burnout, decreased stress
tolerance and depression are the most common signs at this stage (Schaufeli and Maslach 2017,
pp.1-16). People at this stage also have low immunity and are therefore susceptible to infections.
Other signs and symptoms include acne, chronic pain, headache, appetite changes, and digestive
system problems. Although stress can be an unpleasant experience, is also important in training
the body to cope with a certain level of stress and improves how the body responds to stressors
especially in the alarm stage.
According to Glajchen, (2012, pp. 226-235) the role that family members and colleagues play in
supporting their members is very important. They can help with activities of daily living such as
cooking if the patient is unable to perform. Family members should therefore be involved or
encourage to always be supportive whenever there is any of their members who is facing a
problem. Social support and medical support by health professionals is also important. An
example is counseling. Counseling always give the members psychological support and relieve