In the five-year outlook and the NHS Long Term Plan, personal care rightly gets a piece of the pie.
For example, the first states that “many (but not all) people want to be more informed and involved in their own care, challenging the traditional divide between patients and professionals and providing opportunities for improved health through increased prevention and sustained personal care. ‘.
Indeed, some argue that the future of a viable, affordable and effective NHS depends on the ability to support and enable increased levels of appropriate self-care safely and effectively for large cohorts of patients.
In its current form, the NHS is simply not clinically or financially sustainable, largely because of the ever-increasing demands and expense it creates. And although this phenomenon is already overwhelming, it is likely that it will only increase as the population ages and expands, leading to multiple morbidities.
When approaching the broad topic of self-care, it is helpful to rely on a definition or theory about the specific context in which the topic is being discussed. The Self-Care Forum has promulgated “The Self-Care Continuum,” a concept that indicates how individual use of self-care fluctuates widely.
It is argued that the future of a viable NHS depends on the need to support and enable increased levels of personal care for large cohorts in a safe and effective manner.
Along this continuum, personal care ranges from comprehensive or “pure” care, for example through self-management of minor ailments such as colds, to comprehensive or “pure” professional care, in the case of road accident trauma. serious, for example. example.
Throughout their lives, individuals will be interested in their health for very different reasons – from everyday lifestyle choices to occasions requiring full professional responsibility, whether it is a surgical intervention or a section under the Mental Health Act. This continuum therefore constitutes a useful tool for navigating the spectrum of emotions and the responses that result from them.
Over recent decades, one of the factors that has led to a seemingly near-infinite demand for resources and appointments for the NHS is widespread societal change. This shift in public behavior leans toward the right side of the continuum, with increasing attention and professional responsibility for self-care in areas such as:
If promoted among community groups and implemented correctly, self-care could help reduce collective pressure on NHS services. It is with this in mind that the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London created the Personal Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU).
Created in alliance with the Self Care Forum and the International Self Care Foundation, SCARU is the first academic unit in the world to study self-care to this extent. He recently published his first article on the Self-Care Matrix as a tool and method for analyzing self-care ideas and interventions.
Given the great interest in self-care, both domestically and abroad, special emphasis is placed on aging and multimorbidities; meet the demands placed on health systems; improve patient empowerment and health literacy; and by helping people proactively lead healthy lives, SCARU aims to occupy the forefront of efforts moving forward.
Dr. David Mummery is a GP in West London and Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial College London
For more information about SCARU, please visit here.
