Mental Health Considerations in Chronic Disease: What Is the Best Approach for Supporting a Scleroderma Patient?

Each person who presents for scleroderma-focused care not only has their own psychosocial stressors in their day-to-day life but they also have scleroderma symptom-specific stressors as well as their own mental health reactions throughout their journey with this disease course. There are many actions patients can take to help and support themselves when they are faced with any of the mental health and social determinants of health stressors associated with this rare, chronic illness. Using the scleroderma specialty providers to inform, discuss, and address these areas with their patients can assist with more effective symptom and disease self-management.