The Experience of Chronic Illness: Body, Self, and Story

1 Unit · Undergraduate

This course is an introduction to social scientific models of the experience of illness, especially chronic illness. Chronic illnesses are the leading cause of death and disability in the U.S. and account for 86% of health care expenditures. Acute illness, trauma, and injury are important issues in healthcare, and we will touch on them briefly. But in the realm of human health, most of the major structural, systemic, cultural, financial, professional, emotional, and psychological challenges that face the American people and the US healthcare system center on chronic illness. The goal of the course is to equip students with a conceptual understanding of the experience of chronic illness, and a vocabulary for describing the experience of illness, so that they are better able to design, redesign and optimize healthcare systems and structures to better meet the needs of chronically ill people.