Lived Experiences of Diabetes Patients in Rural Areas of Ghana: Discovering the Forces that Determine Psychosocial Care

Aim: Diabetes has been identified to cause prolonged ill health in many people living in rural communities in Ghana where access to health care delivery appears to be inadequate and of low quality due to financial constraints, limited health resources, poor road network, low literacy levels and limited access to specialist care. Individuals diagnosed with diabetes often express varied psychological and emotional imbalances. Therefore, immediate psychosocial care is needed to prevent patients living in rural areas from getting into severe depression mode and other mental health complications. Yet, understanding how people diagnosed with diabetes should react in order to prevent severe psychological implications has not been adequately explored in Ghana. This study explored the lived experiences of diabetes patients living in rural areas of the Eastern Region of Ghana with the aim of discovering the forces that determine appropriate psychosocial care for patients.

Study Design: Using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), 31 diabetes patients were purposively selected from four hospitals in the region, and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide to investigate participants’ perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences about the disease and how the participants own experiences could be used to construct a framework of immediate care applicable in their own social certain.

Results: The study generated themes along productive and unproductive lines to demonstrate the lived experiences of diabetes patients. Psycho-emotional reactions, psychological shock and emotional outbursts constitute unproductive forces. This caused some of the patients to express suicidal ideations at the extreme point. On the other hand, individual resilience and disposition, guidance and support from care providers, family and community members constitute the productive forces that provide an appropriate framework for psychosocial care for diabetes patients.

Conclusion: The study has shown the need to adequately address the psychological and emotional needs of diabetes patients to prevent extreme forms of psychological distress (anxiety and depression). The authors, therefore, recommend an integrated care model for diabetes patients’ in rural areas that encompass a psychosocial therapy built around the primary healthcare concept with the establishment of counseling units in all Primary Health Care facilities. This will offer a platform to generate personal and community actions and decisions to adequately address the immediate psychological and emotional needs of diabetes patients in rural areas.