Person-centred care: from ideas to action Bringing together the evidence on shared decision making and self-management support

Supporting people to make informed decisions about (shared decision making) and to successfully manage (self management support) their own health and care are not only intuitively and ethically attractive, but they can also improve quality of care.

• Shared decision making is a collaborative process through which a health care professional supports a patient to reach a decision about their treatment.
• Self-management support enables people with long-term conditions to manage their health and wellbeing, day by day, as effectively as possible.

This research brings together the evidence on shared decision making and self-management support, with the aim of providing greater coherence and clarity in debates about person-centred care. Using a mixed-methods approach the researchers reviewed evidence from eleven large-scale innovation programmes that were working to implement shared decision making and self-management support, going on to explores four different, but interconnected, issues:

• What is the conceptual relationship between shared decision making and self-management support?
• What is the policy context for person-centred care in the NHS, and where do shared decision making and self-management support sit within this?
• What does the empirical evidence say about the outcomes and impacts of interventions to enact shared decision making and self-management support?
• What works in implementing shared decision making and self-management support into mainstream health care services?

Twelve key lessons emerged from the research that have been learnt from the actual implementation of large scale person-centred care programmes. The implication of these findings for policy makers and those responsible for providing strategic direction can be found in our 'in brief' summary and analysis.

Contact details

For more information about this project, please contact Darshan Patel, Research Manager at the Health Foundation.