The first Isle of Man Self Care Summit took place on 31st January 2012.  Present were Minister for Health David Anderson MHK, Member for Health, Dudley Butt MLC, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, patients, carers, third sector representatives, and senior managers.  The summit was called to take forward Patient Self Care, one of the key priorities for the Department’s ‘Strategy for Health’.
 
Jane Cooper, a Director from Talking Health Network attended the summit as the keynote speaker. Jane has a wealth of knowledge regarding Self Management issues and has been at the forefront of the development of lay led self management programmes for people with long term health condition in the UK for the last 15 years. The Summit was chaired by the Department of Health Chief Executive David Killip who said: “This summit has been a great success for the future of self care on the Island and will certainly help as a catalyst to drive us forward in developing this increasingly important sphere of healthcare.”
 
Minister for Health, David Anderson MHK said: “Work is well underway with the delivery of the Department’s Health Strategy, which was launched almost a year ago.  A great deal of work is involved, and the changes we want to make to improving and transforming care won’t happen overnight; but we’re making steady progress which I’m delighted with.”
 
What is ‘Self Management’?
Self Management is an integral part of daily life and is all about individuals taking responsibility for their own health and wellbeing, with support from the people involved in their care and in conjunction with care received from health and social care professionals. Self care includes the actions people take every day in order to stay fit and maintain good physical and mental health, meet their social and psychological needs, prevent illness or accidents and care more effectively for minor ailments and long term conditions.  People living with a long term condition can benefit enormously from being supported to self care. They can live longer, suffer less pain, anxiety, depression and fatigue, have a better quality of life, and be more active and independent.
 
The summit heard presenters outline different self care initiatives available on the Island.  They included;
Steve Sieling, Chief Ambulance Officer who gave an overview of the “Choose Well” Campaign, Physiotherapists Christine Wright and Christine Cole who talked about “Self Management, The Physio Approach” and Ann Corkill, Norman Kneen and Fiona Baxter who presented the “Live Well Stay Well” Programme .
 
Cath Quilliam, Director of Community Nursing, said: “This summit has been a fantastic opportunity to develop the future of Self Management on the Island. It was wonderful to see such a variety of services working together to improve patient and client care on the Island.”
 
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