YOUR health, your way.
That was the message at the first Isle of Man Self Care Summit, held by the Department of Health this week.
Health Minister David Anderson MHK joined doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, patients, carers, third sector representatives and senior managers in the Barool Suite, in the Tynwald Building, to discuss the issue of patient self care, which is one of the key priorities in the department’s Strategy for Health.
In total around 90 delegates attended.
The idea behind self care is the empowerment of the patient. In other words, in the circumstances where a patient can care for themselves, they should be afforded the opportunity to do so.
This is done with support from the people involved in their care and in conjunction with care received from health and social care professionals.
It includes the actions people take every day in order to stay fit and maintain good physical and mental health, meet their social and psychological needs, prevent illness or accidents and care more effectively for minor ailments and long-term conditions.
People living with a long-term condition can benefit enormously from being supported to self care. They can live longer, suffer less pain, anxiety, depression and fatigue, have a better quality of life, and be more active and independent.
Obviously, this method will not be appropriate in all aspects of a patient’s care and it will certainly not be appropriate for every patient but health professionals believe it is a vital tool in confidence-building.
It also goes without saying that the successful introduction of a self-care system would free up vital departmental resources.
The concept is in its early stages at present and the summit was seen as a way of gathering together anecdotal evidence of instances of self-care already taking place with a view to looking at how and where this could expand, always with the needs of the patient at the heart of any discussion.
Jane Cooper, a director from Talking Health Network, attended the summit as the keynote speaker.
Jane has been at the forefront of the development of lay-led self-management programmes for people with long-term health conditions in the UK for the last 15 years.
The summit was chaired by the DoH chief executive David Killip, who said: ‘This summit has been a great success for the future of self-care on the island and will certainly help as a catalyst to drive us forward in developing this increasingly important sphere of healthcare.’
Mr Anderson said: ‘Work is well under way with the delivery of the department’s Health Strategy, which was launched almost a year ago.
‘A great deal of work is involved, and the changes we want to make to improving and transforming care won’t happen overnight; but we’re making steady progress, which I’m delighted with.’
The summit heard presenters outline different self-care initiatives available on the island.
Speakers included Steve Sieling, chief ambulance officer, and physiotherapists Christine Wright and Christine Cole.
Cath Quilliam, director of community nursing, said: ‘This summit has been a fantastic opportunity to develop the future of self-management on the island. It was wonderful to see such a variety of services working together to improve patient and client care on the island.
‘Self-care is not a new concept. Sometimes we talk about it as the science of common sense. Patients have self managed for years to a certain extent. There are lots of pockets of it going on but we have not got a co-ordinated response to it.
‘It’s about empowering patients to look after themselves, it’s nothing more than that.’