‘Help Us to Help You – look after your own health’
The NHS faces a number of big challenges with a growing population and increasing costs. The ‘Help Us to Help You’ brochure aims to raise awareness of how we can help you to help yourself by supporting you to take greater control of your health and wellbeing.
Self-management resources
The Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership has developed self-management patient resources for people with long-term conditions. These have been developed in consultation with clinicians and with input from many different healthcare professionals.
The aim of these resources is to support self-care, improve proactive condition management, increase patient and public awareness of staying well and living healthily, reducing the need for hospital admission.
They can be found via the following links:
- Heart conditions and stroke.
- Respiratory conditions.
- Diabetes.
- Living Well.
- Musculoskeletal conditions.
Living with diabetes
Over 3.3 million people in the UK now have diabetes. It's an increasingly common disease and although living with diabetes can be difficult, there are lots of ways to manage your condition effectively.
The charity Diabetes UK offers some great advice and guidance on managing diabetes.
The DAFNE website also offers help to manage type 1 diabetes.
There are supportive learning sessions offered to people with diabetes in Hull and East Riding. Read the leaflet for more information.
Living independently with long term conditions
The Ipsos Mori Ethnography Centre of Excellence has published an evaluation exploring the lives of older people living with multiple long term conditions.
Navigating health and care: living independently with long term conditions sets out the views of 36 patients, family members and carers in order to gain an insight into their experiences of living with and managing their long term conditions and the care they receive.
Self-management guidance
The Health Foundation Trust has published A practical guide to self-management support: key components for successful implementation. This guide explains what self-management support is and why it is important. It looks at various aspects of putting self-management into practice, including planning and commissioning, building knowledge, skills and confidence, and measurement and evaluation. The guide also contains suggestions for further reading and case studies of self-management support in practice.
If you have a long-term condition there are extra things you may need to consider such as making changes to your diet, different types of exercise or medication you may need to take. You can also speak to your doctor or nursing team about the development of a care plan to support you.
Patients in control - long-term care
In the GP surgery and out in the community, a holistic approach to long term conditions care is benefitting patients, putting them more in control and helping clinicians care for them more effectively.
Our 4 minute video features David Fitzsimmons, GP Principal of South Holderness Medical Practice, explaining how personalised care planning is putting patients more in control of their long term health in Withernsea and surrounding areas.
Dr Emma Dawber, a GP at Eastgate Practice, Hornsea explains her approach to long term conditions care for the residents of Aarondale House.
Click the video above to learn more.
Healthlink
A free and reliable resource where you can find information and support for a range of health issues from seeing and hearing people’s real life experiences. People have shared their experiences on film to help you understand what it’s really like to have a health condition. For more information visit healthtalk.org.
Key links
Age UK - www.ageuk.org.uk
Asthma UK - www.asthma.org.uk
British Heart Foundation - www.bhf.org.uk
British Lung Foundation - www.lunguk.org
Diabetes UK - www.diabetes.org.uk
National Council for Voluntary Organisations - www.ncvo-vol.org.uk
Stroke Association - www.stroke.org.uk
Versus Arthritis - www.versusarthritis.org