Table of Contents
Here are the hard facts: more people are living longer lives, which is good. But this also means more people living with long-term health problems which need more of everything—medicines, hospital care, and other support services.
The cost of delivering high-quality care is spiraling out of control and it’s going to get a lot worse.
We need new models for healthcare to ensure we avoid unsustainable levels of cost in the future and are still able to provide high-quality care for all.
That is why it’s important to practice self-management.
What is Self-Management?
Self-management is about educating and taking care of oneself, especially for those who have chronic, long-term medical problems.
It’s about knowing about your condition, what it does to your body, and how to give yourself proper medical response so that you are in charge.
As a result, you know how to ask the right questions when you go to the doctor because you have already read about it, you have an idea of what’s happening to you, and that you are an active member of your own care team.
Why Self-Management is Hard
However, a lot of people find it hard to do the things that would help them stay well or get better. There is a growing demand for services that provide new tools and techniques to help them.
So what would brighten things up for the future? Well, self-management services should be a high priority for commissioners of healthcare services. The government says there should be no decision made about a patient’s care without the patient being involved.
Proactively supporting self-management and focusing on behavior change can have an impact. Patient self-management is key to success.
This potentially means changing people’s behavior, and changing behavior is really hard. That’s why people need support.
It’s hard to lose weight, start exercising, or deal with the anger, fear, and depression that many people have when they have a long-term health condition. They need lots of different stuff to help them.
Key Components for Successful Self-Management
The success of self-management is contingent on four key things:
- Getting good information (information provision).
- Achieving self-confidence (self-efficacy).
- Altering personal behavior (behavior change).
- The ability to go online, use medical devices, and write things down (technical skills).
These elements on their own will not work. All these things need to be mixed and matched according to the specific and personal needs of the patient to help them on the road to effective self-management.
For example, patients can be helped to set themselves goals like feeling confident they can achieve even something as simple as walking to the shops at least once or twice a week.
But if it’s not supported by good quality information, even the most well-intentioned patient may set themselves inappropriate or even harmful goals.
At the same time, self-management services are not about people being pushed to do something. Self-management services are simply a mixture of tools and techniques, and they’re all about providing people with a good range of service options that will help them.
They are there to help large numbers of people to have their own lightbulb moment—that moment when they realize, “I can do this. I am confident and capable enough to manage my own health needs.”
Technology and the internet play an important role in helping people reach that lightbulb moment and follow up with positive actions. Above all, digital technologies can be a catalyst to better, warmer, more equitable human relationships between patients and healthcare professionals.
Finding the Right Primary Care in Wichita, KS
ClarityFirst Primary Care is a go-to provider in Wichita KS especially for those who are seeking quality, reliable, and convenient primary care.
We can bring the provider to you instead of you going to the provider. You can do this either by scheduling an appointment for a housecall or a provider video call.
ClarityFirst understands that patients might have limited mobility. As a solution, we’ll provide quality healthcare services wherever you are so that you will never sacrifice vital medical care.
It is our commitment to build a long-term provider-patient relationship with you and we are focused on providing clarity of information to give you confidence in your health decisions.
You deserve convenient and high-quality medical care, and we’re here to deliver it.