Patients and people at risk need to be given structured training and support to accept responsibility for; Self care to prevent ill health, Self management to control long term conditions, Accessing Information to exercise patient's choice.
If folk do not take time and effort to self manage as directed then they may ensure their own early demise.
Patients should be seen as valid partners in their care and expert care partners in their care team.
If patients do not change their thinking that the NHS has all the answers and that health has little to do with them. The problems will not go away. people will still grow old and live longer and will continue to develop long term conditions. Especially those living in the most deprived areas. We must start soon. Each GP should have a self care/management programme available and an effective Patient Practice Group could deliver it as it isn't brain surgery it is common sense
Yes, but who is going to fund doctor's practices to do this. Resources are already an issue.
Patient support groups understand what it feels like to have a particular long term conditions and often produce advice and information about the condition and host support groups in local areas. They need investment to develop health educators to support others with self care. This needs a bit more care than assuming everyone will benefit from generic programmes run during the working week. New media could be deployed to help people support each other in safe ways and spread activation.
For too long the NHS has struggled to keep pace , financially, with the increased burden of the advances in medicine combined with the public failing to take responsibility for their own health. We have to invest in training and education with new and innovative health awareness programmes. We talk about the health of the nation when we should be talking about the health of the individual "self care should start at birth"
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation