Knowledge of how things interact with each other provides a way of predicting what is required of you and a way of then deciding how to use your energy. It allows you to know in advance whether you have enough resources to manage what is coming or whether you will need to pause, work out what to do and prepare yourself better or more or decide not to do something at all.
The experience of others is highly valuable for having already ‘walked’ those pathways so that we can learn what are the issues and options for strategies. Knowing when to put these into place for an individual though as to whether that is suitable or not requires an understanding of the entire board. Knowing how every foot step is linked with each other allows those working with individuals with chronic conditions to predict what will happen next and to put into place strategies to support them to remain regulated and to learn from the situation to enable them to move forward on the board. Analysis of the tiniest details in the farthest reaches of a task or an environment or an interaction can make the difference between success or absolute failure.
There is an element of time spent that is helpful when supporting chronic conditions. Simply because the quantity of variables to assess are so huge and so detailed. Being able to support individuals and families over an extended period of time through each of the foot steps that they take is a working relationship where each individual starts to be able to predict more for themselves due to the constant passing on of information between everyone. The efficiency of this results in conservation of energy which lessens the ‘felt’ impact on a daily basis or overall. Working through challenges when there is knowledge of how steps are built into a challenge in the first place enables parents and individuals to move more quickly to navigate around unexpected situations that life or others can put in front of them.
For those situations where there are no solutions which present themselves such as lack of resources it is important to work with the appropriate organisations to support comprehension of the need and solutions that can be put into place. Working at an individual level as well as a community or global level and understanding the different options that present themselves in those different environments is important.
