Self-Management Today - March 2010

 Issue 2 March 2010

 Welcome

Welcome to issue 2 of Self-Management Today, the bi-monthly newsletter of The National Register of Self-Management. We hope that you have had a successful couple of months tutoring despite the amount of snow and rain we have had! So, we are back a second time and hope you enjoy reading the articles below. We have a couple of items from the Department of Health, along with a few new contributors. We are always interested to hear from our readers, so if you would like to suggest a topic, or write a short article for the next issue then please contact the editor, Louisa Austin at admin@selfmanagement.co.uk We would also like to thank everyone who has taken the time to participate in the online Tutor Manual survey. Kate Lorig from Stanford University has recently visited the UK to discuss with the UK T-Trainers how to change and improve the Lead Training Manual and the Tutor training itself. She kindly consented to include a Lead Trainer Master Class during her stay. The master class was filmed and the key highlights will be exclusively available through the National Register. We will also have a full report of her visit in the next issue of Self-Management Today.

The new register is certainly creating a lot of interest across the UK. We have new members signing up every week. One of the questions that has arisen from a number of quarters is that of price. Well the good news is that it is totally free to add your details to the National Register of Self-Management. Anyone who has completed the training as a Self-Management Tutor, regardless of who they normally deliver for, should add their details to the register. Visit www.selfmanagement.co.uk for more information. Of course it does cost money to keep the register going, there are administration and running costs to cover. We feel that it is very important to keep the register free from advertising or major sponsorship, so we will eventually be introducing subscription packages to tutors already on the register. There will be a number of options from basic listing membership to an enhanced package which will give tutors the ability to access their „profile‟ (via www.selfmanagement.co.uk) to demonstrate their qualifications and accreditation status. Full members will have access to a library of downloadable resources including manual amendments and updates, an online course and conference calendar, a discussion forum and other training opportunities.

Organisations will be able to use the register to confirm tutor accreditation status and to search for and contact available tutors to deliver specific courses. But for this year, it‟s still free! So if you know anyone working as a self-management tutor - send them this newsletter so they don‟t miss out.

Louisa Austin Editor, Self-Management Today

 Learning Credits - Certificates issued!

We would like to congratulate all of those who have recently been issued their learning credits certificates! In conjunction with the OCN Credit 4 Learning we are now able to award 15 credits to accredited tutors. These credits are the equivalent to A Level / NVQ Level 3 standard and are a great way of quantifying all of the work that you put into learning and training to become a tutor. You can then add this qualification to your CV or to your application for further education. At the moment we are only able to award tutors that are accredited to deliver the CDSMC (Generic) Expert Patients programme. However, eventually we hope to be able award tutors who have also trained up to deliver other courses.

The next tutor training in the process of being recognised by the OCN Credit 4 Learning is the Staying Positive Programme for young people. These young facilitators are aged between 15 and 25 deliver the course to young people aged 12-18.

At present learning credits, for those tutors able to deliver the CDSMC course, are free to all that apply! However, these spaces are limited and the offer will shortly be coming to end! After that it will cost £65 per tutor. This cost is what we are charged by the OCN per tutor plus a minimal admin fee, we make no profit. So we encourage you to APPLY NOW!!! email louisa.austin@eppcic.co.uk or click here Learning Credits

 Personalised care planning for people with long-term health conditions - patient leaflet

The Government has made a commitment in High Quality Care for All, the final report of the NHS Next Stage Review, that everyone with a long-term condition (LTC) will be offered a care plan by 2010. To ensure that people living with a LTC know what this means for them and what they should expect, the Department of Health is publishing a patient leaflet in March 2010.

The leaflet aims to communicate that people with LTCs should not just expect a “tick in the box” care plan but rather a process of personalised care planning that involves them in decisions about their care with a discussion about their goals and what is important to them. Care planning means supporting people to understand their condition, the impact it will have on their life and what they can do for themselves to be confident to manage. The leaflet explains that the care plan records the outcome of that discussion and that this may be called different things such as a self-management plan, a health plan or a support plan.

It is hoped that in raising awareness about what personalised care planning and the care plan are, people with LTCs will know better whether they are receiving it and if not, will ask their health or social care professionals for more information. This in turn should help to drive demand and support the Government‟s overall aim of improving care and services for people with LTCs.

The leaflet would be another useful edition to add to your resource table and will be available in early March from the Department of Health's order line or by telephone (0300 123 1002) by quoting reference 299425. 

 NHS Devon - Making EPP part of the care pathway 

By Carmel Fanconi, EPP Course Co-ordinator, NHS Devon

Expert Patient Programmes and „Looking after Me‟ carers programmes are planned and orchestrated by Kath, a valued administrator, 18 wonderful and willing volunteers and myself in my role as coordinator for the programme across the large geographical area that is NHS Devon. The job involves planning, organising and administration of courses. Recruitment and registration of participants together with recruitment, training and support of tutors are also major elements of running the EPP programme.
Devon is the third largest county in England with NHS Devon and Devon County Council covering 2,534 square miles of the county. This excludes Plymouth and Torbay, both unitary authorities. The distance from Ilfracombe in the north to Dartmouth in the south is around 80 miles, and from Tavistock in the west to Axminster in the East is 69 miles. These factors together with a population of over 700,000, an older age profile compared to the national average and a sparse rural population affect how we plan to provide equality of access for the programme.

The population of Devon is mainly centred on the 28 Devon market and coastal towns and the City of Exeter. In this financial year the EPP programme will be available in 57% of the towns and Exeter will have 3 Expert Patient Programmes and 2 carers courses. A development has been the training for, arranging and running an EPP course within a local prison. Challenging but rewarding in seeing the changes affected by action planning in participants and their environment. In all, 18 courses are planned, 13 have taken place from April 09 to December ‟09 and a further 5 are current or due to start and all will be completed by the end of March 2010.

The number of participants accessing the courses is varied with an average attendance of 10 with Bideford, Exeter and Tiverton being oversubscribed with registrations of 18 and 17. The majority of those attending are living with long term health conditions such diabetes, arthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Those living with MS and in recovery from depression are frequently present as are those living with chronic back pain and ME. The majority complete the course.

Promotion of the courses includes presentations to general practices across the area, to health care professional groups and to patient support groups. Posters, newspaper articles and radio interviews are part of our usual recruitment as are letters to all surgeries, hospitals and pharmacies in the locality of the course venue. Letters from GPs to patients, referrals by specialist practice nurses and occupational therapists are effective in encouraging those who do not move naturally towards self management. Small card inserts, designed by Kath and put in prescriptions for patients living with long term health conditions are a recent addition to our promotional activity and pharmacists and dispensing practices have been willing to do this in selected areas. The results are encouraging. Natural self managers respond to posters, leaflets and press. They come to polish up their self management skills and are an essential part of successful group work on the course. Others may need the encouragement of their health care professionals to help them take that step of joining a course.

Supporting our tutors with planning and training meetings, newsletters and regular communication is an essential part of our programme as are the monitoring and assessment visits and the tutor supervision days. Training for EPP within the prison environment and LAM conversion for our newer tutors is part of this years training programme. Potential tutors have been interviewed and two are going forward for initial training this year. I need more tutors to meet the needs of the people living with long term health conditions in this large population within a mainly rural area.

Feedback from reunions following courses and from participant letters are encouraging for tutors and are used in anonymous format to encourage recruitment to both programmes. All courses are monitored, analysis of these local results with follow up calls are due to be available to NHS Devon by the end of April ‟10. These results, together with the recent report presented at the BMA which highlighted the personal benefits to those attending EPP courses and the cost saving, should help to make EPP part of the care pathway for people living with long term health conditions.

Booking your place on a self management course or a carers course in the area served by NHS Devon is easy, simply telephone 0800 073 0792 and leave your name and number. You will be contacted, provided with information and registered for the next available course in your area.

 Arthritis Care - From the Channel Islands to Unst

By Ian Darling, T Trainer at Arthritis Care

Arthritis Care has been at the forefront of self-management in the UK for nearly 20 years. Initially Kate Lorig, from Stanford University, approached the organisation to take up the franchise for the Arthritis Self-Management Programme (ASMP) and we successfully rolled that out across the UK and in the process helped stimulate interest in self-management as a viable tool for people living with long-term conditions.

Building on the success of ASMP we added the Chronic Disease programme to our portfolio as well. We work not only from Lands End to John O‟Groats but reach down to the Channel Islands and up to Unst, as far north as you can get in the UK (it's part of Shetland!). We have experimented in other forms of delivery and now regularly run video conference courses and are at present running an online trial.

This year we have presented roughly 100 6-week courses and on top of that have delivered over 60 of our own Challenging Pain courses. Challenging Pain is a 2-week intervention focusing on strategies to manage severe pain. It was developed by Arthritis Care in conjunction with the Pain Management Unit at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. In addition we deliver courses in many areas under contract to local PCT‟s Expert Patient Programmes. We have approximately 210 volunteers able to deliver, all fully accredited under SS2Q. In addition we have 12 Master Trainers and 3 T Trainers and are able to provide the full range of training services to PCTs and CHPs.

Our T Trainers are part of the UK T Trainer group, working with EPP CIC and other organisations delivering Stanford self-management, to secure the best future for the programme throughout the UK and providing opportunities for joint learning and sharing of knowledge and experience.

Visit our website to find out more about Arthritis Care

 Improving health and wellbeing for people with long-term conditions - information tool for commissioners

The Government‟s aim is to put people at the centre of decision making about the care they receive. Delivering health and wellbeing improvements for people with Long-Term Conditions (LTCs) isn‟t just about treating an illness, it‟s about delivering personalised, responsive, holistic care in the full context of how people want to live their lives – all part of the Government‟s gold standard vision for personalised care across public services.

Supporting people to take a more active role in decisions about their health and wellbeing means that the NHS has to change the way in which it both delivers and commissions services for people with LTCs. To help commissioners and local partners share a common vision of what a good service for people with LTCs looks like, the DH has recently published an information tool to help commissioners achieve that vision.

The document has been developed collaboratively with patients, clinicians, the third sector, the NHS and social care organisations as an information resource, and recommends actions for commissioners to consider when developing their commissioning plans, to support implementation of personalised care planning and self care support for people with LTCs.

To download a copy of the document, please visit the Department of Health‟s website or you can order copies at www.orderline.dh.gov.uk and quote 298720.

 Keeping going in times of cutbacks

By Jim Phillips, Policy Director, EPP CIC & T Trainer

In 2002, when the Expert Patient Programme and the Chronic Disease Self-Management Course were first introduced to the NHS, politicians of all parties were talking about increasing spending on the NHS and support to people living with long-term conditions.

Today, in the new economic climate, politicians are competing to declare by how much they are going to reduce expenditure on public services. So called soft support services, like self-management are always vulnerable to cuts in spending. Tutors are very aware of how tight many budgets are. One question often asked by tutors is – why are there no courses in my area? The answer is often the same; money and belief; money to pay for the courses and belief by those paying for them that they work.
One of the core tasks this year for everyone in self-management is to help to make the case for increased investment in self-management. Earlier this month  EPP CIC published a report; Self Care Reduces Costs and Improves Health - The  Evidence that summarises the latest evidence.

“Expert Patient Programme significantly improves the quality of life for people who go on the courses. There is strong evidence to demonstrate the economic benefits that EPP could have on the NHS. Combine this with the feedback from course participants, which suggests that the NHS is still not meeting the support needs of patients, and it becomes clear that a more integrated approach is needed.”

Many people become tutors because of the benefit they themselves had from going on a course. If self-management is to be available to all we need to make the case - so please persuade course participants to send letters to their GP. If you have any good stories or evidence we would like to hear. Email admin@selfmanagement.co.uk
The National Register of Self-Management a very important part of establishing the case for self-management. This new National Register is a central database of fully accredited tutors, trainers and assessors. It demonstrates to the NHS that the people involved in delivering EPP courses in England are working to high, verifiable, quality standards.

To read the full report visit www.expertpatients.co.uk and follow the link on the home page.