Self care is personal health maintenance. It is any activity of an individual, family or community, with the intention of improving or restoring health, or treating or preventing disease.
Self care includes all health decisions people (as individuals or consumers) make for themselves and their families to get and stay physically and mentally fit. Self care is exercising to maintain physical fitness and good mental health. It is also eating well, self-medicating, practising good hygiene and avoiding health hazards such as smoking to prevent ill health. Self care is also taking care of minor ailments, long term conditions, or one’s own health after discharge from secondary and tertiary health care.
Individuals do self care, and experts and professionals support self care to enable individuals to do enhanced self care.
Self care support has crucial enabling value and considerable scope in developing countries with an already overburdened health care system. But it also has an essential role to play in affluent countries where people are becoming more conscious about their health and want to have a greater role in taking care of themselves.
To enable people to do enhanced self care, they can be supported in various ways and by different service providers.
Self care support
Self care support can include:
- Self care information on health, lifestyle, physical activity, or healthy eating
- Information prescriptions providing personalised information and instructions to enable an individual to self care and take control of their health
- Self care and self monitoring devices and assistive technology
- Self care skills and life skills training programmes and courses for people
- Advice from pharmacists, physiotherapists and complementary therapists
- Self care support networks which can be face to face or virtual, and made up of peers or people who want to provide support to others or receive support from others
Self care approaches
Self care topics include:
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