Out of the shadow: Partners managing illness together

Abstract

In this manuscript, we critically review existing studies of managing chronic illness within the context of intimate relationships to reveal future paths for this line of inquiry. Building on the combination of insights from previous studies and our own collaborative experiences managing chronic conditions together as relationship partners to one another, we outline some ways that intersectional analyses may broaden contemporary understandings of chronic illness management, and the ways people accomplish such management individually and collectively within varied concrete situations and social locations. Further, we reveal gaps in existing knowledge concerning, for example, sexual, gender, and relationship diversity and propose some ways that narrative and experience‐based analyses may begin to close these gaps. In conclusion, we outline a series of concrete directions for furthering study of chronic illness management within intimate relationships.

Reframing health and illness: a collaborative autoethnography on the experience of health and illness transformations in the life course

“…As we have engaged in collaborative projects on many subjects before (see, e.g. Nowakowski ,, Nowakowski and Sumerau , ) , we began collaboratively working on the materials as outlined above and sought to understand lessons for future study from my case.…”

“…These cognitive adjustments may also be ongoing in the case of chronic conditions (Nowakowski 2016a). At the same time, however, they may spark reflections about what we take for granted versus what we consider critically (see also Nowakowski 2017). The first author, as shown in the next example, encountered many such cases of reconsideration and reflection concerning medical science, healthcare and illness management while reframing their own health and illness:…”

“…Similar to the ways people in mixed‐orientation marriages (Wolkomir ) and people managing illnesses collaboratively in a relationship (Nowakowski and Sumerau ) make sense of tough moments by postulating a better future or purpose for their struggles, people may make sense of transformations in their health and illness by focusing on something positive that may come out of their hard times. In so doing, as noted with Sharp's () interviewees, people may give themselves something beyond their immediate circumstances to focus on, which may ease the strain of facing difficult circumstances in the immediate moment.…”

Aging Partners Managing Chronic Illness Together: Introducing the Content Collection

“…For example, in the early 2000s 82% or more of Medicare beneficiaries aged 65+ in the United States lived with one or more diagnosed chronic diseases, and more than 75% of those individuals had multiple persistent conditions ( Wolff, Starfield, & Anderson, 2002 ). Nearly two decades later, the fields of social gerontology and illness management still have not delved explicitly into the experiences of the vast population of older relationship partners who are managing chronic conditions simultaneously ( Nowakowski & Sumerau, 2017 ).…”

“…Indeed, much of the earliest research in this field engaged older adults with and 1 Florida State University, FL, USA 2 University of Tampa, FL, USA without chronic conditions. However, this pioneering literature gave little consideration to relationships in which multiple partners were coping with chronic illness (Nowakowski & Sumerau, 2017). By contrast, the majority of published manuscripts (e.g., Manne & Zautra, 1990) presented a "sick partner/well partner" model in which caregiving flowed only in one direction.…”