Top Tip - My Condition, My Terms, My Life

Top Tip: Give people
information that they can
understand – this is the first
step to empowerment. It can
be challenging, particularly
for people who can’t read or
write.
Top Tip: Take the time
to understand what’s
going on in the lives of
people living with long
term conditions.
Top Tip: Support people to
monitor their own
condition(s) e.g. taking their
own blood pressure or
blood sugar readings, so
that they come to
consultations and checkups
with some of the information
they want to discuss.
Top Tip: Recognise that
you, as a professional, are
having to learn to do things
differently too.
Top Tip: Trust the person you’re
supporting. Professionals need to
recognise that self management is
about shifting the balance of power
in favour of the person living with
long term conditions. This takes a
lot of trust in each other.
Top Tip: Remember that
not everyone is able to
read or write, speak or
easily understand what
services are being
offered to them or how
they can help them.
Top Tip: Effective
communication between
service providers and
users is essential.
Top Tip: Stop labelling
people and calling them
‘patients’ – they’re people.
Think of them as people,
not as a condition.
Top Tip: Communicate and
listen well. Really listening
and hearing what people
have to say is key to
supporting self management.
Using skills such as
motivational interviewing,
open questions and reflecting
back what people say helps
get much more information
from someone about how well
they are self managing, or
whether they have unmet
needs.
Top Tip: Put yourself in the
position of people living with
long term conditions.
Top Tip: Don’t forget about self management for mental health conditions.
Self management can be very useful, for instance involving people at an earlier
stage in the management of their dementia, straight after diagnosis. Planning
ahead and starting to have some of those difficult conversations will make
things easier for themselves and their family at a later stage.