PATIENTS in the Isle of Man who have long term health conditions are being encouraged to take more responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.

Last week the Department of Health hosted a self care summit called Your Health, Your Way which outlined how patients could care for themselves better – a key priority in the department's health strategy.

Patients, medical professionals, carers and representatives from the third sector attended the summit which was held on January 31.

They were told that people living with a long term condition could "benefit enormously" from self care and as a result could live longer, suffer less pain, anxiety, depression and fatigue, have a better quality of life and be more active and independent.

A number of speakers presented different self care initiatives which are available in the Island including the Choose Well campaign, the "physio approach" and the Live Well, Stay Well programme.

Cath Quilliam, the director of community nursing in the Isle of Man, 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."

David Killip, the chief executive of the Department of Health, chaired the event. He 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."

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L to R: Jane Cooper, director at Talking Health Network Ltd, Fiona Baxter, volunteer trainer on the ‘Live Well, Stay Well’ programme, Ann Corkill, senior nurse for the primary care patient safety and governance team and Norman Kneen a volunteer/ course leader