The Health Foundation has launched a £5 million, three-year initiative which aims to transform healthcare by making self-management an integral part of the NHS. Co-creating Health is designed to improve the health and healthcare of people with long-term conditions. Up to eight awards are on offer worth in the region of £600,000 each.
The initiative is the first of its kind and will offer an integrated package of self-management support courses for patients, development programmes for clinicians to help their patients better self-manage, and assistance in service redesign.
“Co-creating Health is a unique approach,” Harry Cayton, National Director for Patients and the Public at the Department of Health and an advisor to The Health Foundation, said. “By combining three interventions to create partnership between health professionals and people with long-term conditions it will provide a real impetus to professional development, service re-design and well-being for people.”
Over 17 million people in the UK are currently living with a long-term condition. Furthermore, the incidence of chronic diseases in the over 65s is set to double by 2030.
“This initiative has the potential to improve the health outcomes of thousands of people living with long-term conditions,” Natalie Grazin, Assistant Director at The Health Foundation, said. “We have seen promising results from self-management courses but we know that in isolation they are of limited effectiveness. We encourage teams to apply so that together we can help clinicians, patients and organisations to embed self-management into the very heart of the health service.”
The Health Foundation is now looking for applications from interested and committed teams working across primary and secondary care and with a proven track record in improving services for people with long-term conditions.