Self care for long-term conditions

Self care for long-term conditions

Did you know that if you are living with a long-term condition, you will spend, on average, six hours a year with a healthcare professional and the remaining 8,754 hours managing your health for yourself?

Living with a long-term condition brings challenges and it’s important to have the confidence, support and information to manage your health. Self care can help you make the most of living with your condition, rather than avoiding or missing out on things because of it. Self care puts you in control.

Research shows that people with long-term conditions who take more control of their health feel more able to cope with their health problem, have better pain management, fewer flare ups and more energy.

Portcullis practice is committed to helping you live your life with a long-term condition. We are working on this area of the website.

Areas covered so far:

1. Use of Self-monitoring Equipment for Hypertension, Severe Asthma and COPD.
2. Self-help Information for Diabetes
3. Self-help Information for Mental Health

1. Use of Self-monitoring Equipment for Hypertension, Severe Asthma and COPD.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the use of self-monitoring equipment may be a useful tool.

• The use of home blood pressure monitors can help our patients to self-monitor their health as much as possible and allow us to reduce the numbers of patients that need to come in to the surgery.
• The use of thermometers and oxygen monitors at home may be helpful for patients who are shielding to monitor their health, for patients with severe asthma or COPD and in cases of COVID-19 in order for unwell patients to monitor their health and seek advice if needed.

We would encourage all our patients who are interested to read the information below and find out more information about these devices. If and after reading the information you would like to purchase one of these devices we would recommend you speak to your local pharmacists Boots, Lloyds and Murrays in Ludlow who will be able to advise you and offer you a choice of items to purchase. They will be more than happy to help you.

Self-monitoring your blood pressure, oxygen levels and temperature at home

2. Self-help Information for Diabetes

Information on what to do when you feel unwell (Sick day rules leaflet)

One specific to patients with type 1 diabetes and another for patients with type 2 diabetes.

Click on link below:

Self-Help Information for Diabetics

3. Self-help Information for Mental Health

The toxic combination of social isolation, loneliness, economic hardship, future uncertainty and loss of the usual supports, networks and nourishing activities that sustain us has led to both an increase in the severity of pre-existing mental health conditions and the emergence of new ones.

On top of the ‘lockdown’ impacts of isolation and economic hardship, come the more direct effects of COVID-19 on mental health from fear of illness and health anxiety to recovery and post-traumatic stress and the impact of long covid to the consequences of bereavement.

If patients have a pre-existing mental health condition (e.g. health anxiety, eating disorder, depression, generalised anxiety, panic disorder etc) Covid-19 has made it much worse. But COVID-19 also triggers new mental health problems, and as well as the common problems of depression, anxiety and alcohol/substance misuse we see new cases emerging of OCD, health anxiety and even psychosis.

Self help information for patients with Mental Health Problems