One way is through all these kinds of efforts to bring people and conversations together! In terms of a strategy for building a broader movement, we acknowledge a movement already exists and there are multiple actors and coalitions working to advance self-care policy and practice. For example, the Self Care Trailblazer Group is a coalition of ~50 organizations committing to advance self-care policy and practice, and includes PATH, Jhpiego, White Ribbon Alliance, FHI360, Population Services International and others. How can we move forward to a broader movement, new horizons? Oh I wish I I knew the answer to this! We can likely learn from the PHC movement by committing to continue the dialogue, creating goals, then refining those goals, trialing, documenting and improving the process in the decades ahead. Better self care in healthcare is going to be a long journey - something every generation will improve on. In sum, we should organize - while leaving plenty of room for innovation.
At a more tactical level, there are a growing number of frameworks to help actors (in particular national governments and implementers, both public and private) to look across self-care interventions as an approach to strengthen health systems, rather than stay in product or intervention silos. A newQuality of Care Framework and aFramework for Digital Self-Care are two examples of frameworks that support this shift from intervention-specific approaches to self-care, to systems-based approaches for self-care. But they are only useful if people start to use them and share their experiences in forums such as this today. We hope that over the coming years we see that happen!
Being able to self-treat has become even more important in the wake of COVID-19. So many people are still sheltering at home or are maybe concerned about going to the doctor, they need access to self-care solutions to keep themselves healthy at home.
Building a broader movement in self-care requires promoting strong cross-sector collaborations that generate more health and well-being within society. This takes an all-of-society approach – no single entity can build this movement alone.
Self-care is everyone’s business! Considering demand generation (through increased knowledge) coupled with increase access to the right products and services (supply) cannot be done in silo. Collaboration and partnerships are foundational to build a wider movement.
A3. Self-care should be considered as a new population model integrated into everyone’s lifestyle. It should be part of a new normal. Two approaches could be considered:
Stakeholder engagement and alignment: create a new model by engaging the right stakeholders who would promote the benefits of self-care: healthcare professionals when providing care and empowering their patients to new ways of care, policy makers by adapting regulations and programs, business leaders by increasing awareness, community carers and leaders, patients/individuals and many more.
Embed self-care approaches into existing models: for example, leverage social medias to provide quality healthcare information or share self-care approaches as core modules of education programs in schools.
We believe there is a unique opportunity as health systems start to recover from the Coronavirus pandemic, to ‘lock-in’ positive behaviour changes so people continue to self care. This means putting policies in place to enhance community pharmacy and embed the digital-first approach, or there is a risk people will just go back to doing what they did before.
We need to work across sectors and industries to forge uncommon collaborations that drive positive change. We need to understand the challenges from different perspectives and be open and honest in our dialogue about how to address them. I’m a firm believer in the importance of relationships and listening to others.
Self-care has become ever more important with individuals increasingly taking control of their own health, both during and beyond the pandemic. Technology allows new levels of self-care integration.
Yet coupled with this individual empowerment and broader movement comes the need to ensure that individuals are given access to accurate and science-based information.
Healthcare professionals (including pharmacists and nurses) continue to have a pivotal role to play in the self-care continuum by guiding individuals to appropriate self-care products and interventions, which, in turn, reduces the number of non-critical doctor consultations and directs patients to medical practitioners when a more severe condition is suspected.
From our Federation’s point of view, we need to ensure that individuals are directed towards credible, and reputable sources, (like WHO), for matters concerning broad medical care. Many of our members also have public facing educational resources specific to the field of self-care available for the broader public.
In terms of building a broader movement, International Self-Care Day is celebrated annually on 24th July, and this marks an important annual milestone for our organization and our members. Every year GSCF runs a different campaign focusing on a different facet of self-care, to highlight the true value that self-care can bring to both individuals and society.
We are also working with various stakeholders to ensure a broader understanding of self-care and its benefits for individuals and healthcare systems. It also includes engaging with the actors outside our industry.
Right now, it is critical to integrate the learnings from COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that the positive practices developed by government and individuals will last.
White papers (policy documents) in the UK rarely mention the term self-care. They talk a lot about prevention and self-management but not self-care in the borader sense. This ideally would change in future.
from a Dr’s perspective how would increased use of self-care change the doctor/patient dynamic? Is there a barrier that people just want to listen to a Doctor and dont trust their own knowledge? Sorry, I lost the question. I think this could be right for more complex health issues but many, many health issues or enquires are minor or about chronic conditions or wellbeing - therefore enabling the patient to seek self care in a really accessibly and affordable way (AI products in a phone they already have) and backing this up with regulation and results - from a health plan that the AI has coached them through for example, then this empowers that individual to really manage their diabetes, their well being etc. If we give them the information but also safety net with when to seek medical help patients do very well controlling their health themselves.
The concept of “self-care” might need some better marketing on this “branding”. The idea of “self-care” carries the concept of “less-care”. So how to communicate that this is not the idea.
I agree that intervention silos, or vertical programming is not an efficient way to work, often flooding ministries with reporting and expenditure deadlines far away from implementing something integrated
It’s key to socialize what we mean by self-care. Things like facials and manicures are all wonderful things to do for yourself, but they trivialize to role self-care plays in healthcare. We need to start talking about self-care in terms of preventative healthcare and treatment.
In the UK we have the Self-Care Forum - a charity established with support from the Department for Health that create resources, run national campaigns, influence policy and collaborate on research. How could we help replicate this model in other countries?
And at the International level there is the Global Self Care Federation and the Self Care Foundation - @Austen suggests that an international Community of Practise will soon be emerging that makes links across these networks
Governments cannot build a movement alone. This means that collaborations at the local and state levels must form to promote health. Leaders from organizations that touch on self-care – governments, businesses, healthcare systems, academic institutions, non-profits, foundations, and the social sector – must form through strong public-private partnerships to promote self-care with plans of action and standardized metrics to measure and evaluate progress.
Other way of action for creating a movement is working with private stakeholders to support campaigning and uptake of health interventions.
Going back to MMS, engaging with the private sector has proven beneficial and effective to implement
and increase access to routine supplementation for children.
The Home Fortification Advisory group has some good examples of socially marketed MMS:
As a follow-up to that look at a real related concept. “Self-care” in the developed countries are things like “stop smoking”, “exercise”, “loss weight”.
These programs whilest well know are more often than not.
PAGB has been very supportive of the NHS and Public Health England winter campaign “Help us, help you: stay well this winter” which includes self care messages to help people look after themselves when they experience the symptoms of winter ailments, like coughs, colds and sore throats.
During the first wave of coronavirus the UK Government messaging of ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ was actually a self care message. As public health campaigns involve, it will be important to ensure positive messages about self care are included.