Miriam McCarthy, a teacher from a neighboring school, has been suffering from obesity since she was ten years old. Currently, she is teaching in a college, yet she is a professor of economics at Massachusetts University. Her family is located around the college hence the decision to work near her home rather than seeking employment from other areas of specialization. Besides, her health condition cannot allow her to work far from her home. She earns a salary of ten thousand dollars all of which is spent on catering for her family and most especially her health complications once they arise. McCarthy has worked with various organizations and in most cases; she could not perform her duties as expected due to health complications. She finds it difficult to interact with other colleagues in her workplace hence the decision to quit and start working in the college school where she finds it easy to associate with others.
The culture biases have a negative notion that people suffering from obesity are disabled just like the crippled. However, neither the crippled nor those suffering from obesity should they be treated in a negative way (Barbour, 2011). McCarthy claims that out of the negative attitude associated with the cultural beliefs, she has been forced to raise her children and stay unmarried since there is no man has accepted to stay with her after discovering that she is suffering from obesity. Consequently, McCarthy has developed a negative attitude towards her conditions and she currently does everything possible for her children not to suffer from the safe problem as hers.
People suffering from obesity suffer from a wide range of problems that ranges from psychological, social and physical problems. In McCarthy’s case, it is evident that she suffers from various challenges both socially and physically which may result in her failure to access proper healthcare. She has quit her various jobs despite her being a fully qualified professor due to lack of self- esteem, low quality of life and body dissatisfaction. All these psychological problems have resulted to her low income. On the other hand, her children depend on the same finances for their daily support. People suffering from obesity are forced to seek medical checks to make sure that they do not suffer from diseases such as cardiovascular disease, various types of cancers and other diseases associated with obesity. All these checks have become unaffordable for McCarthy forcing her to seek help from well-wishers who sometimes turn her down. All these challenges reduce her chances of getting quality medical care from equipped health centers.
McCarthy also suffers from the various social problems such as bullying, lack of marriage and less salary. She is forced to wait for other people in queues to avoid being bullied. Technically, she has children since she was married. However, she currently raises the children alone since she was divorced after her husband realized that she was obese. These social problems are also primary causes for her risk to get proper medical care (Robinson & Christiansen, 2014).
Since medical care has become a challenge to McCarthy, she can engage other methods such as personal self-care program in her home. These self-care strategies are efficient and reliable regarding the reduction of the impact of obesity on individuals. She can start by regulating her diet by consuming more healthy products that are useful to her body. These forms of diet are available on the internet and other sources of information. Other health self-care program includes the exercises. She can use her free time before and after school to perform some exercises such as jogging and skipping. A many of these exercises can be performed with minimum help which she can get from her children. It is also advisable that people suffering from obesity should have a better understanding of various diseases associated with their health conditions, their treatment, control and prognosis which is necessary for prevention of further diseases.
Obesity can be treated and cured if the patient uses proper methods. These methods used in treating the disease vary from one form to another and so is the cost incurred in treating obesity. However, these healthcare services come at a cost that the patient has to pay (Haslam & Witterst, 2009). Though a majority of the cost is financial, a larger part of the cost is associated with the patient’s deduction to carry out the requirements and prescriptions of the doctor. Some of these primary care requirements are routine checks on the body mass index, counseling of healthy diet and other primary assistants that health providers can give to doctors. For adults suffering from the disease such as McCarthy, there are specific forms of health care services such as weight loss medication, behavioral intervention. Chronic forms of obesity require technical methods to solve the problem such as bariatric surgery. This kind of surgery is useful in regulating the weight of patients who cannot lose weight through medication or various therapies available for the same disease.
- Barbour, S. (2011). Obesity (1st Ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press.
- Haslam, D. & Witterst, G. (2009). Obesity (1st Ed.). Abingdon: Health Press.
- Robinson, E. & Christiansen, P. (2014). The changing face of obesity: Exposure to and acceptance of obesity. Obesity, 22(5), 1380-1386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oby.20699