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Labor and Personnel New disease self-management program has benefits
An innovative chronic disease self-management program, developed and tested by the Stanford University School of Medicine, is being shown to improve the health of participants and reduce medical costs.
A key ingredient to the success of self-management programs is the process in which the programs are taught. Classes are highly participatory, where mutual support and success build the participants’ confidence (self efficacy) in their ability to manage their health and maintain active and fulfilling lives.
Participants learn about goal-setting and develop personal action plans weekly. Participants and leaders begin every week with a sharing session about their experiences and brainstorm solutions to any roadblocks.
Participants are those living with chronic conditions such as lower back pain, arthritis, diabetes, depression, or heart disease. They all experience challenges such as chronic pain, limited mobility, poor sleep, decreased energy, limits on their social life and daily activities, missed work, depression and frustration.
My Life My Health, the name given to this type of program in Massachusetts, is now being offered by MIIA.
MIIA Health Trust subscribers and their family members living with persistent health challenges (and subscribers that are care-givers) are eligible to participate in a six-week workshop designed to help individuals set and meet their own personal goals and learn practical, simple techniques to lead happier, more comfortable and productive lives.
MIIA’s My Life My Health meets for two and a half hours at a municipal site and is led by two trained facilitators, one or both of whom are living with persistent health challenges themselves.
Topics include:
• Techniques to deal with challenges such as frustration, fatigue, pain and isolation
• Appropriate exercise for maintaining and improving strength, flexibility, and endurance
• Appropriate use of medications
• Communicating effectively with family, friends, and health professionals
• Nutrition
• How to evaluate new treatments
Each participant in the workshop receives a copy of the companion book, Living a Healthy Life With Chronic Conditions, and an audio relaxation tape, Time for Healing.
Benefits of self-management programs
Chronic disease and other persistent health challenges are prevalent in the municipal population. Costs associated with these conditions account for as much as 60 percent of all health care expenditures and contribute heavily to rising health care costs. Long-lasting behavior changes can have a positive impact on health and health care costs.
The Stanford School of Medicine coordinated a large-scale evaluation in the early stages of the program. More than 1,000 people with heart disease, lung disease, stroke or arthritis participated in a randomized, controlled test of the program, and were followed for up to three years. On its Web site (http://patienteducation.stanford.edu/programs/cdsmp.html) the school reports that the program looked for changes in many areas: health status (disability, social/role limitations, pain and physical discomfort, energy/fatigue, shortness of breath, psychological well-being/distress, depression, health distress, self-rated general health), health care use (visits to physicians, visits to emergency rooms, hospital stays, and nights in hospital), self-efficacy (confidence to perform self-management behaviors, confidence to manage disease in general, confidence to achieve outcomes), and self-management behaviors (exercise, cognitive symptom management, mental stress management/relaxation, use of community resources, communication with physician, and advance directives).
The school reports that subjects who participated in the program, when compared to those who did not, demonstrated significant improvements in exercise, cognitive symptom management, communication with physicians, self-reported general health, health distress, fatigue, disability, and social/role activities limitations. They also spent fewer days in the hospital, and there was also a trend toward fewer outpatient visits and hospitalizations.
The school reports a cost-to-savings ratio for the program of approximately 1:10. Many of these results persist for as long as three years.
MIIA offerings
One recent participant in MIIA’s My Life My Health program said it has been helpful and therapeutic, and she appreciated the opportunity to connect with other participants. Julie also praised the instructors and said she is “thrilled” to start Zumba with a classmate from My Life My Health.
MIIA’s Well Aware Wellness Program also offers a host of primary preventive-based programs to help keep individuals from losing their health to begin with.
For more information about Well Aware or My Life My Health, call (617) 426-7272, ext 269.
Wendy Gammons is MIIA’s Wellness Coordinator.
Labor and Personnel New disease self-management program has benefits
New disease self-management program has benefits
An innovative chronic disease self-management program, developed and tested by the Stanford University School of Medicine, is being shown to improve the health of participants and reduce medical costs.
A key ingredient to the success of self-management programs is the process in which the programs are taught. Classes are highly participatory, where mutual support and success build the participants’ confidence (self efficacy) in their ability to manage their health and maintain active and fulfilling lives.
Participants learn about goal-setting and develop personal action plans weekly. Participants and leaders begin every week with a sharing session about their experiences and brainstorm solutions to any roadblocks.
Participants are those living with chronic conditions such as lower back pain, arthritis, diabetes, depression, or heart disease. They all experience challenges such as chronic pain, limited mobility, poor sleep, decreased energy, limits on their social life and daily activities, missed work, depression and frustration.
My Life My Health, the name given to this type of program in Massachusetts, is now being offered by MIIA.
MIIA Health Trust subscribers and their family members living with persistent health challenges (and subscribers that are care-givers) are eligible to participate in a six-week workshop designed to help individuals set and meet their own personal goals and learn practical, simple techniques to lead happier, more comfortable and productive lives.
MIIA’s My Life My Health meets for two and a half hours at a municipal site and is led by two trained facilitators, one or both of whom are living with persistent health challenges themselves.
Topics include:
• Techniques to deal with challenges such as frustration, fatigue, pain and isolation
• Appropriate exercise for maintaining and improving strength, flexibility, and endurance
• Appropriate use of medications
• Communicating effectively with family, friends, and health professionals
• Nutrition
• How to evaluate new treatments
Each participant in the workshop receives a copy of the companion book, Living a Healthy Life With Chronic Conditions, and an audio relaxation tape, Time for Healing.
Benefits of self-management programs
Chronic disease and other persistent health challenges are prevalent in the municipal population. Costs associated with these conditions account for as much as 60 percent of all health care expenditures and contribute heavily to rising health care costs. Long-lasting behavior changes can have a positive impact on health and health care costs.
The Stanford School of Medicine coordinated a large-scale evaluation in the early stages of the program. More than 1,000 people with heart disease, lung disease, stroke or arthritis participated in a randomized, controlled test of the program, and were followed for up to three years. On its Web site (http://patienteducation.stanford.edu/programs/cdsmp.html) the school reports that the program looked for changes in many areas: health status (disability, social/role limitations, pain and physical discomfort, energy/fatigue, shortness of breath, psychological well-being/distress, depression, health distress, self-rated general health), health care use (visits to physicians, visits to emergency rooms, hospital stays, and nights in hospital), self-efficacy (confidence to perform self-management behaviors, confidence to manage disease in general, confidence to achieve outcomes), and self-management behaviors (exercise, cognitive symptom management, mental stress management/relaxation, use of community resources, communication with physician, and advance directives).
The school reports that subjects who participated in the program, when compared to those who did not, demonstrated significant improvements in exercise, cognitive symptom management, communication with physicians, self-reported general health, health distress, fatigue, disability, and social/role activities limitations. They also spent fewer days in the hospital, and there was also a trend toward fewer outpatient visits and hospitalizations.
The school reports a cost-to-savings ratio for the program of approximately 1:10. Many of these results persist for as long as three years.
MIIA offerings
One recent participant in MIIA’s My Life My Health program said it has been helpful and therapeutic, and she appreciated the opportunity to connect with other participants. Julie also praised the instructors and said she is “thrilled” to start Zumba with a classmate from My Life My Health.
MIIA’s Well Aware Wellness Program also offers a host of primary preventive-based programs to help keep individuals from losing their health to begin with.
For more information about Well Aware or My Life My Health, call (617) 426-7272, ext 269.
Wendy Gammons is MIIA’s Wellness Coordinator.
Written by Wendy Gammons
