Identifying health care needs - From Dec.07 Report

How do self-help groups identify their health care needs? Do persons with a chronic condition or persons with disability have knowledge about their own health care needs? Do persons with long standing condition have more knowledge and skills about their own health care? How can they identify and understand their own health care needs?

In the meeting held in Rome in December 2007, the group reached the following conclusions:

1. Some persons with disabilities/chronic conditions and families, who have long experience of living with their disabilities/conditions and repeated experiences with health services, may already have lot of knowledge and skills needed for their own medical care. We need to acknowledge and value these knowledge and skills.

2. Understanding and learning about the body processes and principles of self care is part of controlling persons’ own lives and taking control of decisions that influence quality of their lives. They may be used to delegating this responsibility to health care professionals and others. Some of them may not feel comfortable with taking greater responsibility about their own care. This is equally legitimate. At the same time, for those persons who wish, they need the possibility of learning more about themselves, their bodies and about different skills needed for their own care.

3. Persons are human beings and not just bodies with disabilities. Some times health professionals ignore global dimension of persons and focus only on their medical care needs. Their own interaction and sharing of experineces can give them the opportunity to look at their global dimension, identify areas not being addressed by health professionals and sought answers to their unmet needs.