Co-creating Health

Background

The challenge

It is estimated that over two thirds of all healthcare resources in the UK are currently spent treating people with long term conditions. These are illnesses such as diabetes, depression, heart disease and arthritis, which can be controlled by medication or other therapy, but not cured.

With an ageing population and rising levels of obesity, these figures are predicted to grow. However the NHS is under increasing pressure to improve quality and reduce costs.

The approach

Research has shown that supporting people to self manage their condition improves their quality of life and helps to relieve the burden on the NHS.

For example, supporting and educating someone with diabetes to stay healthy, lose weight and follow the right diet, will reduce the likelihood of associated health problems or emergency admissions to hospital. Self management support also gives the person with the condition more confidence and control by encouraging them to set their own improvement goals.

Research shows clearly that providing information alone is not enough to help people maintain motivation through these changes. More active goal setting and behavioural change interventions are needed.

Co-creating Health has distilled the evidence about what works to support self management into a clear set of skills and practices. It teaches clinicians to incorporate three key processes into their routine practice: agenda setting, goal setting and goal follow up. Engaging people in this way is proven to significantly improve clinical outcomes.

It is a simple concept, but one that requires a fundamental change in approach from health professionals and from the health system as a whole. This is because it means moving away from the traditional relationship between ‘passive patients’ and ‘expert health professionals’ to one where both parties work together as active partners.

Meeting the challenge

Self management support has the power to help the NHS meet the challenge ahead – to improve the quality of health services while also reducing costs.

• It responds to national policy: The 2010 NHS White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, requires that people with long term conditions are engaged in making shared decisions about their own care. Co-creating Health provides a practical programme to help NHS organisations make this ambition a reality.
• It improves the quality of care: All healthcare organisations are seeking to improve the experience of people who use their services and will be increasingly assessed in this area. Many people with long term conditions say that they are not provided with the support to help them help themselves and that their current contact with healthcare professionals is demotivating. Co-creating Health creates high levels of satisfaction and a much improved healthcare experience.
• It provides personalisation, choice and control: By supporting clinicians to shift from being ‘experts who care for and do to’ to ’enablers who advise and support’ we can increase people’s choice and control. Co-creating Health helps people to move from being passive recipients of care to taking an active role in their health.
• It will help the NHS adapt to the economic environment: Research suggests that self management support can bring about changes in how people use health services. For example, people may engage more frequently with a practice nurse, but less with hospital services, potentially leading to fewer crises and in-patient admissions and supporting commissioners to improve cost effectiveness. 
• It responds to the challenging economic climate: Research shows that self management support can bring about changes in how people use health services. For example, people may engage more frequently with a practice nurse, but less with hospital services. In particular, evidence shows that self management support leads to fewer crises and in-patient admissions and can improve adherence to medication.