Empower and prepare patients to manage their health and health care:

• Emphasize the patient's central role in managing their health
• Use effective self-management support strategies that include assessment, goal-setting, action planning, problem-solving and follow-up
• Organize internal and community resources to provide ongoing self-management support to patients

All patients with chronic illness make decisions and engage in behaviors that affect their health (self-management). Disease control and outcomes depend to a significant degree on the effectiveness of self-management.

Effective self-management support means more than telling patients what to do. It means acknowledging the patients' central role in their care, one that fosters a sense of responsibility for their own health. It includes the use of proven programs that provide basic information, emotional support, and strategies for living with chronic illness. Self-management support can't begin and end with a class. Using a collaborative approach, providers and patients work together to define problems, set priorities, establish goals, create treatment plans and solve problems along the way.

[Source]

The following communities or organizations are utilizing this approach:

The following contacts have assisted the implementation of this program in their respective communities and have been listed because they have given permission to be contacted as peer resources regarding this strategy.

• Clay County Health Department
  • Shannon Summers - shannonsummers@clayhdnc.us
• EBCI
  • Abby Holmes - abbyholm@nc-cherokee.com - (828) 359-1500
• St. Luke’s Hospital
  • Kathy Woodham - kathy.woodham@slhnc.org

The following is not a comprehensive list and represents some of the organizations that provide technical assistance and support for Community Education and Outreach in WNC.

The partners in WNC for this strategy include:

• MountainWise: MountainWise works with the eight westernmost counties of North Carolina to provide opportunities for physical activity, access to local fresh fruits and vegetables, provide support for tobacco-free places and access to services for chronic-disease management. [source]
  • Contact Information: 828.349.2456 - Email: Sarah Tennyson - Program Director

• North Carolina Center for Health and Wellness (NCCHW): NCCHW helps manage a variety of chronic disease self-management programs for WNC through it's Healthy Aging Initiative.
  • To view the NC Living Healthy CDSME Data Report, click here.
  • To view a list of the Living Healthy Chronic Disease Self-Management Programs and Community-Based Falls Prevention Programs available, click here.
    • Contact Information: Jeanne Dairaghi - Project Manager - 828.250.3992 - jdairagh@unca.edu