The Department of Health’s Self Care Steering Group has organised an event in the Isle of Man to mark this year’s International Self Care Day. On Wednesday 24 July, the Self Care Steering Group along with staff from many different care sectors will be available to explain more about self care at The Strand Shopping Centre in Douglas between 10:00am and 4:00pm.
Celebrating International Self Care Day is an opportunity for the Self Care Steering Group, along with staff from health care, mental health, public health, voluntary sector support groups and sports development, to engage the public in the importance of self care, encourage the practice of self care and explore where to go for advice.
International Self Care Day falls on 24 July each year; this serves as a reminder that the benefits of self care can be experienced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and acts a taster session for National Self Care Week in November.
Minister for Health, David Anderson MHK, said:
'Supporting self care is important and forms part of the Department’s Strategy for the Future of Health Services. The growing pressure of long term conditions on health service delivery has led to the understanding that supporting self care is crucial to reducing the demand for health services. The Self Care Steering Group has been instrumental in delivering a coordinated approach to raising awareness of the importance of self care across our community, from organising events like this to facilitating the Health-e Directory. International Self Care Day enables the public to learn more about the actions that they can take to practice self care and the benefits of these practices.'
Cath Quilliam, Director of Community Nursing, said:
'Celebrating International Self Care Day is an important way of raising awareness amongst the public, and helps the Department to get the message out about the important role self care plays in wellbeing. The concepts of self care and ill-health prevention are fundamental to the Department’s Health Strategy.'
The Health-e Directory, a resource welcomed by the community and a first for the Isle of Man, has been developed as a ‘one stop shop’ for up-to-date help, support and advice about self care and keeping healthy in the Isle of Man. The Health-e Directory aims to meet these needs with an innovative resource for the Island’s community including health and social care professionals. The Health-e Directory is a partnership between Government and the community, not focused on Government provided health services, but on the diverse range of self care support available.
Self care refers to the actions individuals take for themselves and their families to stay healthy and to take care of minor and long term health conditions, based on their knowledge and the information available. This includes working in partnership with health and social care professionals as necessary.
Self care practices range from brushing your teeth to learning to live with a long term health condition such as Parkinson’s disease. People living with long term conditions can benefit enormously from self care. Self management is one aspect of self care and can be described as the tasks that individuals must undertake to live well with one or more long term health conditions.
Ann Corkill, Senior Nurse for Self Care, said:
'We are bombarded with vast amounts of information and news articles on ‘healthy living’, telling us to stop smoking, cut down on fatty food and alcohol, maintain a healthy weight, reduce the amount of salt and sugar in our diet and increase our exercise. It is far too easy to ignore these health warnings – that is until the inevitable happens – we develop a long term health condition such as diabetes, heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, it should be recognised that for many, their long term condition may not have a direct link to lifestyle choices.
For many of us we know what we need to do but actually doing it is difficult and we don’t always know where to go for help and support. Supporting people to self care brings many benefits, such as improving confidence, knowledge, skills and overall wellbeing.'
It is believed that around 6 out of 10 adults in the population report some form of long term health problem and by 2030 it is estimated that the incidence of long term health conditions is set to double. These numbers are predicted to rise due to factors such as an aging population and certain lifestyle choices.
For further information on self care please contact Ann Corkill, Senior Nurse Self Care, on Telephone:+44 1624 811830 or email: ann.corkill@gov.im.
