Lifespan management is a process adopted at both institutional and personal levels. According to Ludwig (2016), institutions and individual persons espouse lifespan management framework to promote people’s lives. Similarly, Crimmins (2015) says that the process is designed to ensure people live comfortably despite the health challenges they could be facing. Crimmins emphasizes that lifespan management involves health preventive measures intended to reduce mortality rates while acting as motivating factors to people’s wellbeing. It involves not only medical care but also, weight reduction, healthy relationships, regular exercise, and good nutrition (Edelman et al., 2017). Therefore, life management is not a single event but an all-round process aimed at enhancing the patient’s health and possibly total restoration of health. In light of these explanations, it is apparent that the purpose of lifespan management is to ensure people’s wellbeing is optimally maintained to reduce the number of deaths in society.
Population Served by Lifespan Management
Lifespan management is crucial among infants and young children. Yingwattanakul and Moschis (2017) opine that a child’s environment and biology determine its fate. The risk of the child dying is shaped biologically by the child’s natural defenses, gender, and nutrition and microbial, cultural, physical, and social environment. Infants and young children, especially in the developing world, face severe nutrition challenges that put them at the risk of developing food deficiency diseases such as marasmus, anemia, and kwashiorkor, among others (Edelman et al., 2017). Edelman et al. (2017) stress that these children require proper lifespan management programs such as the provision of improved nutrition supplies and immunization to ensure they live healthy lives.
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Healthy children are more likely to grow into healthy teenagers. However, Waddington and Sambo (2014) note that adolescents require elaborate lifespan management because their lives are marred with increased exposure to irrational decision making. In adolescence, people exhibit growing autonomy, and therefore the decisions they make, their behaviors, and relationships influence their health and development. Edelman et al. (2017) contribute that adolescence is an experimentation period characterized by a rise in risk behavior among teenagers. Waddington and Sambo (2014) call for enhanced lifespan management paradigm, particularly, behavioral interventions to ensure the adolescents live healthy lives.
Another population segment served by lifespan management is the aging population prone to terminal diseases such as cancer, heart problems, stroke, and diabetes. Ludwig (2016) argues that behavioral interventions could be designed to enhance the lives of obese and diabetic people. According to Edelman et al. (2017), regular exercises, weight reduction, and consumption of reduced but balanced food intake contribute positively to the general wellbeing of obesity patients. Nonetheless, diseases such as hypertension and diabetes require proper eating habits. Ludwig (2016) postulates, being a lifestyle disease, diabetes needs intricate lifespan management to extend the lives of diabetic people.
Continuum of Care
Continuum of care derives its contextual definition from the complex yet essential need for health care throughout a patient’s life. Leifer and Fleck (2012 ) define the continuum of care as the effective delivery of health care services to a patient over a period of time. According to Graft-Johnson et al. (2006), the continuum of care is the integration of healthcare packages throughout the lifecycle compounded with the access of health services at appropriate place and time. It “connects essential maternal, newborn, and child health packages throughout adolescence, pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal and newborn periods, building upon their natural interactions throughout the lifecycle” ( Leifer & Fleck, 2012 ). On the same note, Leifer and Fleck expound that continuum of care entails creating and strengthening the connection between home, local health facilities, and hospitals, thereby ensuring that patients could access appropriate care easily.
Environments and Services Offered in the Local Community
The need for effective healthcare services to the locals, community hospitals have embarked on precipitated programs. One of the key services in the local community is maternal, newborn, and child health care. Initially, the local health facilities addressed the mother and child healthcare issues separately, an issue that led to gaps in care affecting newborn babies. Yingwattanakul and Moschis (2017) present that most newborns and mothers die during the first few days after birth or during birth. This occurrence called for a policy review and program attention towards a continuum of care in the local communities. This concept created a universal coverage rather than a competing child and mother care. The new paradigm shift involves effective interventions that integrate care strategies throughout the life cycle of a mother and child. The mother, newborn, and childcare (MNC) plan involves connecting local places and different approaches to giving health care. The MNC creates linkages between health facilities, outpatient and outreach services, household and community care, into an appropriate referral and follow-up system.
Another important service is the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program for HIV/AIDS. The local health services initiated the PMTCT service to promote preventive measures against the transmission of HIV/AIDS from a mother to a child. The PMTCT is four-pronged. It involves primary HIV prevention among reproductive-age women, provision of appropriate counselling as well as support to women with HIV for informed decision-making, access to testing, antiretroviral drugs, and information on how to protect the unborn for pregnant women with HIV. In addition, the PMTCT involves better integration of HIV care, support, and treatment for women living with HIV and their immediate families.
Role of Finance in Lifespan Management
Finance plays an important role in enhancing the realization and sustainability of the lifespan management framework. According to Waddington and Sambo (2014), finance promotes the provision of services essentially needed to promote the lives of people. Arguably, the lack of finance contributes to higher maternal and child mortality rates. Graft-Johnson et al. (2006) state that the cost of universal health coverage is high, and therefore proper funding is crucial. Graft-Johnson et al. (2006) elaborate that approximately 67% of newborn deaths occurring in Sub- Saharan Africa could be prevented if universal health care coverage could be possible. According to the World Health Organization, lack of adequate finance limits healthcare packages required to foster the lives of infants and their mothers. Communities should be able to access not only antenatal care but also care during childbirth and postnatal care ostensibly to minimize maternal and child mortality. The aspect is impossible, not unless adequate finance is availed to promote access to skilled care to the masses.
Arguably, finance provides not only access to health care packages but also the ability to afford basic human requirements. In the absence of enough finance, it would be impossible to afford infants as well as the aging population requisite nutrition that could enhance their wellbeing (Crimmins, 2015). In other words, lack of finance reduces people’s ability to afford both medicine (especially immunization vaccines) and a balanced food diet. Poor feeding is a recipe for deficiency diseases, including anemia, marasmus, and kwashiorkor, among others, that cause child death in most of the developing nations. Notably, the development of behavioral intervention and dissemination of the information requires finance. Edelman et al. (2017) submit that even in the developed world affected by lifestyle health challenges, including overweight and obesity, finance is critical in creating awareness in the communities. Therefore, finance is integral to provide healthcare packages, promote nutrition, and foster access to information, all of which are crucial components of lifespan management.
Importance of Regulations for Lifespan Management
Regulation is a crucial aspect of the provision of health care services. Apparently, life span management encompasses more than just health care services to include personal and institutional activities designed to promote the wellbeing of people. The role of regulation, especially in institutional programs, is to protect people from various health risks while at the same time fostering the provision of different programs for people’s health and wellbeing (Aluttis et al., 2014). In this case, the public is able to access appropriate health care that meets essential healthcare requirements. Reasonably, regulations for lifespan management enable institutions and practitioners to identify work areas and components of clinical practice that require improvements to enhance the workplace and patient safety (Crimmins, 2015). Hence, the regulations ensure patients are protected against undue harm that could ensure in the course of accessing the essential lifespan management services.
On a different note, regulations create measures for accreditation of institutional and individual healthcare providers. Aluttis et al. (2014) state that the purpose of regulations is to ensure only accredited institutions and individuals that offer high-quality care operate in public. The regulations set up industry standards, including repercussions for non-compliance to the set laws. In other words, regulations are used to ensure that not only safe but also competent practice is exercised in lifespan management. They promote better service delivery by enforcing patient safety (Aluttis et al., 2014). In light of this perspective, the regulations ensure practitioners are accountable for their decisions and actions, thus maintaining high competence throughout their careers. Therefore, the welfare of patients falls at the center of a clear and effective regulatory framework.
References
Aluttis, C. et al. (2014). Public health and health promotion capacity at national and regional level: a review of conceptual frameworks. Journal of public health research , 3 (1).
Crimmins, E. M. (2015). Lifespan and healthspan: Past, present, and promise. Gerontologist, 55(6): 901-911.
Edelman, C. L. et al. (2017). Health promotion throughout the life span-e-book . Elsevier Health Sciences.
Graft-Johnson, J., et al. (2006). The Maternal, new born, and child health: Continuum of care. https://www.who.int/pmnch/media/publications/aonsectionII.pdf
Leifer, G., & Fleck, E. (2012). Growth and development across the lifespan: A health promotion focus . Elsevier Health Sciences.
Ludwig, D. S. (2016). Lifespan weighed down by diet. Jama , 315 (21), 2269-2270.
Waddington, C., & Sambo, C. (2014). Financing health care for adolescents: a necessary part of universal health coverage. Bulletin of the World Health Organization , 93 , 57-59.
Yingwattanakul, P., & Moschis, G. P. (2017). Life course perspectives on the onset and continuity of preventive healthcare behaviors. The journal of primary prevention , 38 (5), 537-550.
