There are lots of tools and resources to help you become confident about coping with your health. One of the most useful is a self-management programme (or self-care course).
On a self-management programme, you learn how to cope with day-to-day life when you have a long-term condition. The course teaches you skills to boost your confidence and help you to become more independent.
It can give you advice and other information on:
By the end of the course, most people feel much more positive about living with their condition, and are more confident about getting on with life afterwards. They also go on to teach others by sharing their experiences.
There are many self-management courses available, depending on where you live. Some are for a variety of long-term conditions, while others are for a specific condition, such as diabetes.
The Expert Patients Programme (EPP)
This is a six-week course run by tutors who also have a long-term health condition. The purpose of the course is to enable you to take more control of managing your own health by:
- sharing and learning from other people’s experiences
- teaching you ways to manage your symptoms
- finding new ways of doing things that you want or need to do
- finding ways to cope when you’re feeling low
So far, more than 40,000 people have attended an EPP course. All places on the course are free and EPP courses are held all throughout England. Many people feel better afterwards and are more confident and less anxious. They also visit their GP less, take less time off work, have less pain and need to take fewer medicines.
The EPP course is open to anyone with a long-term condition. You don't need to be sent by your GP or hospital doctor (though it's helpful to let them know you're going on the course). You can book a free place by getting in touch with your local EPP team. For more information visit the Expert Patient Programme website.
Read about one woman’s experience of attending an EPP course and how it changed her life for the better.
Courses for specific long-term conditions
Self-care courses for people with a specific health problem can be shorter, sometimes just a couple of hours, and may consist of talks by a doctor, nurse or other healthcare worker, and other patients. Examples include:
- DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) and Desmond (Diabetes Education and Self Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed): self-care courses for people with diabetes.
- Challenging Arthritis: courses run by Arthritis Care for people with fibromyalgia or arthritis.
- Be in Control: materials from Asthma UK that help people with asthma take better control of their condition.
You could ask your GP or healthcare worker about getting on a local course. The British Medical Association has advice on finding a self-help group or patient organisation. It’s another way to find condition-specific courses that are offered by patient-led or voluntary organisations.
Self-help groups
If you’re not ready for a structured course like the ones above, try a local self-help group. They’re less formal and they’re often a stepping stone to a disease-specific course or an Expert Patients programme. For more information, read our page on finding out more about your condition.
Courses for young people
Staying Positive is a series of three one-day workshops for children aged between 12 and 18 who have a long-term health condition. The workshops are run by young people who also have a long-term condition, and they look at issues that specifically affect teenagers, such as:
- communicating with family, friends and healthcare professionals
- socialising and friendships
- taking your medicines
- school, careers and your future
- feeling down and depressed
- puberty
