Department of Health

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Supporting self care

Self care is all about individuals taking responsibility for their own health and well-being.  This may be self care to live healthy lives, such as brushing our teeth, or looking after ourselves to recover from short term illness.

However, for people living with a long term condition self care can become a more fundamental part of their everyday lives, to ensure independence, self worth, and the ability to lead as near a normal life as possible.

Why Self Care?

"The name of the game is taking care of yourself, because you're going to live long enough to wish you had."
Grace Mirabella, Editor American Vogue magazine 1971-1988

All the evidence shows that pro-actively managing a long term condition is better than reacting to it.  The best care management programmes involve:

  • multi-disciplinary teams
  • supported self care and self management
  • the education of patients and carers

Your health, your care, your say

The ‘Your health, your care, your say’ consultation has shown that people with LTCs want to do more self care, just as they are keen to manage their own social care budgets.

This will require the building of good relationships with professionals, and developing the confidence that they will be fully supported, before taking greater responsibility for their own care. This will mean accepting a fundamental change in the way care is provided.

Our health, our care, our say

The ‘Our health, our care, our say’ White Paper published in January 2006 committed the Department of Health to:

  • do more to support people with long term conditions to self care
  • promote well-being and community engagement
  • focus more on prevention and early intervention
  • design services around the patient/service user rather than the needs of patient being forced to fit around the service

NHS and social care organisations cannot do self care to people but what they can do is create the right environment where people feel supported and encouraged to self care.

What are we doing?

The Department of Health are currently developing workstreams to support self care concentrating on four key areas:

  • information
  • skills training
  • technology & equipment
  • support networks

For commissioners and providers

For people living with long term conditions

Get in touch

If you would like to find out more about the work that the self care team at DH are doing, or tell us about your self care initiatives please email us.

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