Dear Secretary of State
Congratulations on your appointment as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. As Chair and President of the Self-Care Forum, we are writing to you on International Self-Care Day, to introduce you to our charity and the work we do. We would also like to ask for your support in raising awareness of, and increasing levels of self-care in the population, something which benefits individuals, communities, wider society and the NHS.
Our vision is to make self-care a core part of everyone’s everyday life. This could be taking care of a cough or cold, adhering to medical advice and treatment, eating healthily and incorporating movement into the day, giving up smoking or changing other risky health behaviours. It is also, knowing when it’s time to visit the pharmacy, the GP surgery, A&E or to call NHS111.
The Self-Care Forum’s remit in this, is to provide tools, education and the encouragement needed to drive behaviour change. We empower people to practise self-care daily, which positively impacts health outcomes in societies and helps to reduce health inequalities. These are fundamental to the vision for making the NHS sustainable and fit for the future.
Encourage NHS participation of National Self-Care Week (18-24 November)
A quick win towards a more self-care aware population would be to embed our evidence-based self-care aware fact sheets into the pharmacy first programme in England. These would provide a resource for pharmacy teams to empower their patients when discussing common conditions, giving people crucial self-care information such as the normal duration of symptoms and red-flag symptoms.
Self-Care Week has grown from just a handful of participants to around 1000. Awareness campaigns are proven to motivate, educate and inform the public about their health but, to ensure continued impact, it is vital that the information is accurate, consistent and repeated regularly.
We are asking if you as the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will support an official joint press release, championing Self-Care Week and encouraging participation in it by local and national organisations. This would significantly increase its impact.
Embed Self-Care Aware Resources into Pharmacy First
A quick win towards a more self-care aware population would be to embed our evidence-based self-care aware fact sheets into the pharmacy first programme in England. These would provide a resource for pharmacy teams to empower their patients when discussing common conditions, giving people crucial self-care information such as the normal duration of symptoms and red-flag symptoms.
Changing culture with longer term goals
There is no silver bullet when empowering the population to take better care of their physical health and mental wellbeing. Messaging and action must come from a variety of trusted sources such as:
- Comprehensive health education included in the school curriculum so that health and wellbeing can be understood and practised from a young age. This will help early prevention activities and reduce the risks for some chronic diseases developing. It may potentially inspire young people to take up jobs in the health service.
- Ensure universities and colleges incorporate modules dedicated to supporting self-care as a fundamental to living well.
- Ensure that all healthcare practitioners are notified, through their professional bodies, of the relevance and importance of empowering the people they work with and themselves to self-care, particularly in relation to the beneficial impact on NHS resources and given the tools to support people’s self-care during interactions.
With all agencies working together, we are confident that within a generation we can improve people’s understanding and willingness to adopt self-care practises, ultimately leading to improved health outcomes and to reduce the burden on the NHS.
We very much hope you will support us in championing Self-Care Week and look forward to hearing from you on this. We would like to have further opportunities to discuss how our work can support the growth of the NHS and social care.
Yours sincerely
Helen Donovan, M.Ed. BSc. RN, RHV, Queen’s Nurse, FRSPH.
Chair, Self-Care Forum
Independent nurse consultant and immunisation specialist nurse
Dr Pete Smith OBE
President, Self-Care Forum
CC: Karin Smyth MP, Stephen Kinnock MP
