Self care week 14-20th November 2011

Paul Burstow, Minister for Care Services, launched the 2011 Self Care Week at the Annual Self Care Conference on 8thNovember by saying, “Today is all about giving people much more control over their health and care. This requires changes in behaviour and attitude, new ways of working where health professionals are working with patients as the experts in their own health. We know that handing more power to patients when combined with the right information and support can make a huge difference to the quality of life, and is key to our ambition to make a reality of a patient centred NHS.”

Following the success of previous years, Self Care Week 2011 will take place from 14-20 November 2011. This is an opportunity for NHS, social care and voluntary sector organisations to raise awareness of what's available locally to help people take care of themselves. Self Care Week has been organised by the newly formed Self Care Forum, a task set by the Minister at its inaugural meeting on 10th May 2011.

The Self Care Forum maintains that self-care is not the same as no care, as recent experience from the Isle of Wight demonstrates.

Self Care means health professionals helping their patients to become more self-sufficient, more involved in the management of their conditions and benefiting from an improved lifestyle as a result.

The Primary Care Trust on the Isle of Wight realised that the numbers of people with respiratory conditions, particularly Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma was higher than the national average and that despite prescribing more medicines, the number of emergency admissions and even deaths was worryingly high.

Following a joint initiative across the professions to support patients to self care, emergency admissions to hospital have fallen by a half and deaths from asthma by three quarters! The costs of both treatments and hospital inpatients have been reduced, and the Isle of Wight now has one of the lowest rates of complications from asthma in the whole country.

This is what happened. The mainstay of the treatment and self management of both COPD and asthma is the use of inhalers, and it is known that a lack of understanding of how to take medicines and the correct use of inhalers are implicated in half the deaths from these conditions. In the past there has also been some criticism of the ability of health professionals to explain the appropriate use of medicines and the correct technique for inhalers.

The Isle of Wight doctors, nurses and pharmacists all worked together to produce a series training events for patients which included the use of this device, which was subsequently provided for their use.   The speed of inhalation is essential to the success of inhaler therapy, and there is a commercially available device which helps train users to achieve the optimum speed and co-ordination.

This has not been achieved overnight, nor has it been without a great deal of effort from all those involved. The lessons we learn from this are that when health professionals and their patients work together to tackle a common but potentially dangerous disease, the benefits can be for all.

First and most important, the quality of lives of people is improved as they take on some of the care for themselves. The doctors and the NHS benefit from freed resources and more time spent on other problems. Perhaps best of all, people with a debilitating condition not only feel their lives improve but take more control of the condition, and can learn to live with it, not under it.

For media queries please contact: libby.whittaker@selfcareforum.orgor call 07887 516476

For more information on the Isle of Wight study please contact: Mike Holden, CEO National Pharmacy Association M.Holden@npa.co.uk / 07506479491

The Self Care Forum (www.selfcareforum.org) was established in May 2011 with the specific aim to further the reach of self-care and embed it into everyday life.  Forum members include patients, GPs, nurses, pharmacists, health service managers, and the Department of Health. In recognition of the changing role of the Department of Health going forward, the Forum has been tasked by Paul Burstow, Minister for Care Services, with organising and raising awareness of Self Care Week 2011, building on the resources developed by DH in the previous two years. 

Self Care Week tools and resources are available on the DH – http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_128721  and Self Care Forum websites http://www.selfcareforum.org/?page_id=539 , including a web button that links to the NHS Choices self-care pages, posters, and free leaflets, to help get the best out of local initiatives.