Public Health and Health Promotion
 

Long Term Conditions

Self Care

Living with a long term condition (LTC) is a life long journey. It means you will need to learn about your condition, how to manage it and the effect it will have on your life.

Our aim is for you to live your life to the full and not have your life dominated by your LTC. This involves helping you to self care. Developing a personal care plan, in partnership with your healthcare professional, is essential to help you achieve living your life to your full potential.

Self care must be a part of daily life. It is about you being responsible for your own health and wellbeing. Actions you can take to:

• stay fit,
• maintain good physical and mental health,
• prevent illness and accidents, and
• care more effectively for minor ailments and long term conditions.

Self Care can be as simple as taking your medicines regularly and eating a healthy diet.

Self management is your ability to:

• manage the symptoms of your LTC by knowing about and following your treatment, and
• understand the physical and emotional effect of your LTC and how it affects your lifestyle.

These things are part of living with a LTC.

Planning care that is personal to you:

• gives you more control,
• improves your independence, and
• helps you to be involved in making decisions about the care you need for your LTC.

Healthcare professionals will help in a number of ways.

• They will help you decide the goals you want to achieve and what you might need to change to achieve them.
• They will help you weigh the pros and cons of changing your current behaviour so that you can manage your LTC.
• They will support your enthusiasm and confidence to make changes that will help you achieve your goals.
• They will help you identify and draw on other areas of support that will help you for example: information, support groups, voluntary organisations.

You will be supported with information that helps you understand and manage your LTC. This might be in the form of an Information Prescription. It may be included in a self management plan, it may be typed or handwritten.

Your personal care plan may cover your:

• health,
• family,
• social,
• economic,
• educational,
• mental health,
• cultural needs.

This is taking into account that other factors affect your total health and wellbeing as well as your medical needs. Taking all your needs into account may open up more choices for you when planning how you can manage your LTC.

The care plan is a record of the actions that you have agreed in order to achieve the goals you have set for yourself to help you manage and control your LTC. It is your plan, you own it, and you can share it with whomever you choose. Your healthcare professional will discuss with you who in the multi-disciplinary team your care plan is best shared with so other professionals are aware of the goals you are trying to achieve and can ensure their plans are complementary.

• As part of living with a life long condition you will also be supported to make plans for your care in your last phase of life when the time comes. This is known as advance care planning and further information is available here www.nssomersetendoflifecare.nhs.uk .
   
• NHS Choices provides general and condition specific information about self care. www.nhs.uk/planners/yourhealth/
  This page sets you off in the right direction to:
  • understand what self care is,
  • make the most of working with your healthcare professionals,
  • make and use a care plan,
  • access more information and support that refers to your long term condition.

  You can undertake your own assessment 
   

• A gentleman who is living with persistent pain, asthma and osteoarthritis has worked with his GP to produce a Self Care Toolkit for others living with challenges similar to his. It provides a comprehensive introduction to self care for people with a long term condition.