06.03.13
UK lagging behind Europe on ill-health
Source: Wendy Lawrence
Yesterday’s news that the UK ‘fares badly in European health league table’ yet again highlights the need for strategies to tackle and manage preventable long term conditions and smoking-related illnesses, such as lung and heart disease and cancer.
The UK needs to embrace strategies such as health coaching as part of a holistic, integrated care system, in order to improve its performance and the overall health of our nation. Health coaching, where registered nurses support and mentor patients in partnership with local health organisations, can make a huge difference to individuals diagnosed with long-term conditions by addressing key concerns about their condition via two-way phone calls. This technique is emerging as a powerful platform to nurture informed patients, help them change unhelpful thinking patterns and proactively manage their disease.
Health coaches can talk to patients, using the correct, non-directive, terminology and suggest whether they need to report symptoms to their GP which crucially may provide the necessary spur a patient requires to help early diagnosis, prevent an unplanned emergency admission and improve health outcomes.
A common belief with patients is that they are conscious that consultation time with their GP is limited therefore health coaching can provide a valuable adjunct for those individuals wishing to discuss the management of their long term conditions with an additional trained health practitioner.
In order to turnaround the UK’s performance, we need an integrated care system, where the key components of patient-centric services such as electronic healthcare and telehealth are joined together with health coaching providing a human mechanism to sit at the centre and evaluate all available, linked data, and identify areas where technology can help reduce costs and improve care pathways.
Wendy Lawrence, CEO, Totally Health
Re: Tackling preventable death factors could save 30,000 lives