Long Term Conditions

Lynne Craven has lived with MS since the age of 34, and has added familial hypercholesterolaemia and under active thyroid along the way. Lynne is a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ network of champions for collaborative care and support planning.  She tweets at @sm_partnership and sometimes uses #getLynneacareplan to make the point that she wants one.

For people with long term conditions, living with their symptoms and adjusting the way they live with them is part of everyday life.  Appointments with health professionals represent only a small proportion of their time and the rest of the time they are ‘going it alone’.  But how realistic is it to expect people to play an active role in managing their own health and to make difficult lifestyle changes without support?

Earlier this week, Wellbeing Our Way published its discussion paper: What is the role of VCSE organisations in care and support planning? In this blog, Chris Commerford introduces Age UK’s new approach to support older people’s wellbeing.

Patient activist and Chair of Shropshire Dementia Action Alliance, George Rook, imagines a world in which people are enabled to be in control of their health and their lives.