Working with Self-Management Courses: The thoughts of participants, planners and policy makers

The management of chronic disease and the contribution patients make to their own care is attracting widespread attention, nationally and internationally. A range of self-management courses have been developed by Kate Lorig and her team at Stanford University's Medical School since the early 1980s, and these have now been implemented throughout the UK. Designed for people with long-term health conditions, they are delivered by hundreds of agencies worldwide, and differentiate the concept of disease management (to be done by a health care professional) from the individual's management of life with a long-term condition (self-management).

This book explores how this work became important to the NHS and airs the arguments about the importance of lay leadership. It brings together those who have been instrumental in developing these courses, and assesses the value they hold for the different groups involved directly in them (participants, course trainers, staff), and those it will affect indirectly (GPs, nurses, policy makers, commissioners). The reader will find personal experience and accounts of the excitement in designing new work. Reflection on what happens to people attending courses is set alongside consideration of radical questions about the need for resilient communities. Next, the research reports are followed by considerations for policy makers and local agencies, voluntary and statutory. Finally, questions about the future direction and links to local communities are raised.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Patti P Urso, PhD(Walden University)
Description:Using the comments of persons who have been involved in developing and participating in disease self-management courses, this book assesses the value of the courses to the communities for which they were designed as well as their relevance to potential policies and research.
Purpose:The purpose is to present the concept of self-management from a historical perspective, through an experiential one, and ultimately its future implications, using the perspective of multiple key players such as participants and providers. Although a book that explores this concept is needed, the objectives of this book are unclear.
Audience:This book is useful for those who are involved in teaching or developing self-management courses. It is also useful for proponents of the advancement of policies by understanding how these courses were designed and delivered. This book would be recommended for those interested in affecting policy and research directions. However, it would not be useful to participants in self-management courses due to its philosophical content.
Features:It covers a wide variety of experiences expressed by those who are involved in developing courses for self-management, starting with the historical perspective of self-reliance as far back as the 1800s. Many of the chapters center around the experience with courses, the support of agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, and a conclusion of the value of the self- management courses for primary prevention and the effect on participants. A lack of connection between chapters makes it a bit difficult to understand the themes of this book.
Assessment:This is a very unique book that focuses on highlighting the value of lay leadership in issues such as policies affected by the design of self-management courses in the U.K.