By Jennifer Fiorillo
Mental Health
Jennifer Fiorillo
The idea of self-care seems relatively self-explanatory and straightforward. It is a phrase that is promoted and broadly used to describe the act(s) of caring for oneself to maintain and improve mental and physical well-being. Strategies for self-care may be used to lower the risk of illness or disease, reduce stress, burnout and anxiety.
It seems that it would be easy for one to adopt self-care practices. But self-care is a construct that involves a number of factors, making its definition much more complex and elusive.
First let’s clarify what self -care is not. Self-care should not be mistaken for self-indulgence. Stress, burnout and pressure in one’s life are not alleviated by extravagant shopping sprees, liquid courage and binge watching your favorite television series – at least not in a healthy way. These things only provide short-term relief or immediate gratification.
The act of self-care involves a longer-term commitment to practicing strategies that will have a positive impact on your health and well-being. Taking yourself out for a pedicure, going to lunch with a friend or getting a massage can be viewed as self-care, but they are considered part of an overall plan to participate in behaviors that will support health and wellness.
The World Health Organization defines self-care as “the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote and maintain health, prevent disease and to cope with illness or disability with or without the support of a health worker.”
Here the idea of self-care can include participation of the health care system and communities to promote and support it. It’s a more global approach that extends across more than just ourselves. Self-care is dependent on one’s ability to be self-reliant, self-aware and to access specific tools and resources to optimize the impact of the strategies they employ for more favorable outcomes.
When those tools and resources aren’t available to people and communities to leverage, the likelihood of successful self-care is reduced. In this context, it is a conversation about health equity and public health campaigns that are targeted at education, prevention and health promotion. Campaigns that address areas such as sexual and reproductive rights and health or managing and preventing certain communicable and chronic diseases are key to empowering people to be self-reliant and helping them build a toolkit to give them some control over their own well-being.
Our understanding of self-care as a basic concept is not at all reflective of how it is understood and addressed both globally and across a number of disciplines. There are many literature reviews and studies that have been published exploring the concept of self-reliance and other dimensions of self-care to better explain their intersectionality. The International Journal of Nursing Sciences published an in-depth concept analysis on self-care in 2021 that speaks to the complexities in its definition and application in the nursing discipline. This is just one example of how the idea of self-care is addressed with health care workers playing a vital role in providing the tools and education needed to promote its use.
Jennifer Fiorillo, MBA, MPH is the president and CEO of Bridges Healthcare in Milford, and may be reached at Jfiorillo@bridgesmilford.org.