What is Self Management?
"Self Management is a way of informing and supporting you to manage your long term condition, for yourself, not by yourself"
MySelf-Management promotes and supports the vision of the self management of health for those living with long-term conditions. Self management encourages and supports individuals, to take greater responsibility for their own health and wellbeing and who seek to live life to its full potential. It is about forging an equal partnership between the individual, health and other professionals and the community around them, to the mutual benefit of all.
Successful self management is about working in partnership with your family, friends, volunteers, peers as well as professionals to find the best route to your wellbeing. While your health professional will be knowledgeable in the field of medicine you are the expert in how you are. Only you know how it affects your life, and what matters to you in your life.
Being diagnosed and living with a long term condition can create a sense of loss of control. Often there is no simple cure. How you feel can be influenced by many factors including lifestyle, environmental, psychological factors and how well you are supported, or not.
Long term conditions are medical conditions that a person has lived with for an extended period of time. They include conditions like diabetes, chronic pain, asthma, arthritis, depression, heart failure and multiple sclerosis. They have many causes and their symptoms can be variable.
Self Management Toolkit and Wellbeing Plan
Part of the self management process requires commitment from you. To guide you in this we have produced a Toolkit and Wellbeing Plan which provide some simple tips, tools and techniques which will help. It explains some of the ways you can set goals to improve and develop how you look after yourself.
Most people with a long term condition have learned how to live with their condition and self manage without realising it, you probably already know some of the techniques. By trying some of the techniques that others have found helpful you will hopefully find better ways of living with your symptoms and feel more in control of your condition and live a fuller life.
Remember you are not on your own. Please contact us or ask your local heath care professional if there is anything you are unsure about.