Finding out more about your long-term condition can help you feel more in control.
If you have an understanding of your condition and its treatment, you'll feel more confident. You'll be more able to take care of yourself and take your medicines properly, which could mean spending less time at your GP surgery.
But it's important to have good, reliable information. Wrong or misleading health information can do more harm than good. It can confuse and scare people, raise false hopes and even damage your health.
So where can you get the best information? The following are trustworthy sources:
The internet
- NHS Choices is the main online point of contact for NHS services. It contains clinical information about hundreds of health conditions plus information about local services such as GPs, hospitals and dentists. You can also read reviews on and rate your local GP surgery, dentist and hospital.
- Individual primary care trusts' (PCTs) websites are a useful source of local information. Find details of your local PCT.
- GP surgeries' websites. Find details of your local GP surgery.
- Health Talk Online is a website of videos, audio recordings and written articles where patients talk about their experiences in their own words. People with various conditions, including cancers, hypertension and allergies, discuss their diagnoses and treatment and share their tips on living with their illness.
- The NHS Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) provides information that can help you locate other support services. Contact PALS through your local NHS primary care trust or visit www.pals.nhs.uk.
Written information
- When you visit your GP, hospital doctor or other healthcare professionals, ask them for relevant patient information leaflets to help you understand more about your condition.
- Ask your doctors, nurses or hospital specialists for copies of any letters written about you or your test results, if you think you would find them helpful.
- Ask your doctor or nurse if there's a national patient support group, such as Diabetes UK or the British Heart Foundation, for your particular condition. These groups are often a source of good-quality, reliable information.
Telephone advice
- The NHS Direct helpline on 0845 4647 gives round-the-clock health advice and information from trained nurses.
- Most patient support groups have a telephone helpline staffed by volunteers and, sometimes, health professionals.
Television
Your GP, practice nurse or relevant patient support group may be able to give you a DVD about your condition.
Other sources of useful information
You can also get information such as leaflets, videos and audio tapes, including ones that focus on a specific illness or service, from many different sources:
- Workshops, confidence-building courses such as the Expert Patients Programme, and self-care support networks and groups (both local and national).
- Libraries and adult education centres.
- Some housing-with-care services, such as the Extra Care Charitable Trust, offer a wellbeing service that provides health advice and information for people living in their own homes. Visit www.extracare.org.uk.
