Self Care

Top 10 healthy heart tips

Check your weight

Want to eat well?

Want to lose weight?

How to exercise more

Struggling to sleep?

Want to cut down alcohol?

Help to stop smoking

Your sexual health

Your mental wellbeing

Kickstrart your health

Did you know that one in five GP visits are for common conditions, such as backache, headache, cold or cough?

For most people they are not serious health problems – you just want to know how to relieve it and you want a treatment that acts fast. You also want to know how long you’re going to suffer or what you should do if your symptoms change.

The good news is that self-care can help you manage most of these problems. It may mean you don’t have to spend time waiting to talk to or see your GP but can get on and start tackling your symptoms. Self-care for common conditions can also help free up some of your GP’s time, making it easier to get an appointment when you have a more serious condition.

Self-care factsheets

The Self Care Forum has produced factsheets to help you take care of the most common ailments. Research shows people using these factsheets felt more able to manage their common condition. These provide useful facts about your condition such as what you can expect to happen, how to help yourself, when you should contact your GP and where to find out more information.

More health resources and information

Use the links below for information on mental wellbeing during the coronavirus pandemic, seasonal flu and to look up symptoms online.

If you need more advice or you are unsure what the right thing for you to do is, ask your pharmacist for advice or call the surgery to speak to a doctor or make an appointment to discuss your problem further.

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.

We are committed to helping you live your life with a long-term condition. That’s why we run services where you can get advice on the following conditions:

• Asthma
• Diabetes
• COPD
• Hypertension

We will also work in partnership with you to create the right care plan for your needs. It’s important to think about what you want from a care plan – it can help if you know what you want to discuss with your GP. NHS suggests some questions you could ask:

• Where can I find out about self-help courses for people who have long-term conditions?
• I want to find out more about my condition. What are the best places to do this?
• Is there any new equipment that might help me manage day-to-day. If so, how do I get it?
• How do I meet other people who have the same condition as me? Is there a local or national support group?
• Are there any lifestyle changes I should make to help my health, such as giving up smoking, avoiding certain foods, or doing more of a certain type of exercise?
• What are the results of my tests and what do they mean for me?
• What happens next?
• What can I do?
• What can the doctor do?

The NHS self-care toolkit has practical tips on living with a long-term condition including:

• Accept you have a persistent health condition… and then begin to move on
• Get involved - building a support team
• Pacing - pacing your daily activities
• Learn to prioritise and plan your days
• Setting goals/action plans
• Being patient with yourself
• Learn relaxation skills
• Exercise
• Keep a diary and track your progress
• Have a plan for set-backs
• Team work - work with your practice team
• Keeping it up

There is a range of free courses aimed at helping people who are living with a long-term condition to manage their condition better on a daily basis:

• Self-management UK programmes
• DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) - type 1 diabetes
• DESMOND (Diabetes Education and Self-Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed) - type 2 diabetes
• Breathe Easy – asthma and lung conditions
• Managing COPD
• Hypertension
• Asthma
• Heart and circulatory diseases