Empowerment of citizens and patients is a task which involves and encourages interaction of communities, health care professionals, policy makers and all other civil society actors, with respect to the health and well being of individuals.
Empowering patients means providing them with the opportunities and the environment to develop the skills, confidence and knowledge to move from being a passive recipient of care to an active partner in their healthcare.
Strengthening health literacy, protecting and promoting patient’s rights, and ensuring participation of patients and citizen in decision making processes, and providing self management support are all ways to achieve this. Empowerment needs to take place simultaneously both at the population and the individual level.
It is a multi-dimensional social process through which individuals and groups gain better understanding and control over their lives. The benefits of this approach are numerous for patients, for healthcare professionals and health systems.
However, for this to occur it needs the joint action of stakeholders from the public sector, civil society organisations, professional groups and academia to support advocacy, resource generation, exchange of experiences, encourage participation, and to build capacity in communities.
The Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions Framework (ICCCF) (below) summarizes the basic elements for improving care in health systems at the community, organization, practice and patient levels and is thus a way to illustrate the comprehensiveness of working on enhancing patient empowerment.
As its ultimate goal, the ICCCF envisions informed, activated communities and patients – thus an empowered patient – interacting with a prepared, proactive, motivated practice team, resulting in high-quality, satisfying encounters and improved outcomes.
With thanks to ENOPE (Patient Empowerment. Living with Chronic Disease)
“Part of a series of short discussion topics on different aspects of self-management and patient empowerment written by ENOPE members for the 1st European conference on patient empowerment (ENOPE)”
Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions Framework
With thanks to ENOPE (Patient Empowerment. Living with Chronic Disease)
Better Outcomes for Chronic Conditions