Most of the existing health problems require different medical approaches but the numerous approaches may be grouped or classified into four broad types of medical care using the approaches to medical care as a criterion of classification.
Medical care, be it an immediate medical care, family medical care, comprehensive medical care, long term medical care etc may be categorised into preventive care, curative care, rehabilitative care, palliative care, chaktty said.
What are the main Types of Medical Care?
PREVENTIVE CARE
Preventive care is at the heart of primary health care. It is based principally on the wisdom that prevention is better than cure, not only in terms of its efficacy but also in terms of sparing the majority of the population.
The discomfort, the pain and the need for recovery or rehabilitation characterised curative care.
Public health education, immunisation, and others are examples of preventive care, according to healthpally magazine.
Asides from the fact that preventive care saves the individual, the pains and the economic cost of curative medical care, it also increases the likelihood of the individual having an enhanced life expectancy.
It can be handled by the family with the guide of the family life doctor providing medical care services.
Preventive medical care may not be comprehensive as that of curative medical care and it requires low cost, chaktty said.
There’s no much need for facilities since it could be handled at home most times and parts of the phases of the medical care program at the hospital.
CURATIVE CARE
The goal of curative care is to facilitate recovery from illness or injury through the use of curative approaches exclusively or in combinations.
Curative care entails the use of chemotherapy and surgical procedures as means of treating illness and injuries and correcting tissue malformations that may have resulted from illness, injury or genetic factors.
Curative medical care, most times, it’s an emergency and it could require 24 hours of medical services when it’s comprehensive and needs advanced medical care facilities.
For example, a person suffering from Diabetes may be placed on curative medical care in the clinic and the person would definitely be on a lifelong medical care service because of the nature of the illness.
Naturally, curative care is more expensive than preventive care.
REHABILITATIVE CARE
Rehabilitative care is a form of medical care that’s provided to an individual during or after curative care with a view to facilitating recovery and or adjustment to the health conditions by the individual.
Rehabilitative care comprises correction, convalescence, therapy, mainstreaming and separate care, according to healthpally.
CONVALESCENCE
It’s generally about facilitating the affected person’s recovery from illness or surgical operation and fostering physical and psychological adjustment to conditions that can not be cured.
For instance, the rig dominant person who has had his right arm amputated following a motor accident has to be out through training the left arm to perform daily tasks that were formerly done with the right arm.
THERAPY:
Therapy refers to curative procedures that range from the use of prescribed drugs, physical methods, exercise, play, sports, work, recreation, and tourism in order to ensure the affected individual’s recovery from illness or injury.
Rehabilitative care programs may be designed and implemented on the basis of mainstreaming or separate care.
PALLIATIVE CARE:
It has its aim minimising pain and discomfort and giving or providing care and psychological support for persons who are living with chronic illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Obesity, Kidney disease, heart diseases.
