Health Council of Canada. (2012). Self-management support for Canadians with chronic health conditions: A focus for primary health care. Retrieved from http://healthcouncilcanada.ca/tree/HCC_SelfManagementReport_FA.pdf

“We recommend that health care systems across Canada move actively to provide self-management supports in a more systematic way. We see four key areas for action:

1) Create an integrated, system-wide approach to self-management support. Current efforts to promote, deliver, and evaluate self-management support are often fragmented. This report highlights several integrated approaches that we can learn from. Continued progress on the delivery and uptake of self-management support should be monitored against specific health system performance objectives, measures, and targets. Further research in key areas, such as cost-effectiveness and how best to sustain program effects in the longer-term, is also needed.

2) Enable primary health care providers to deliver self-management support as a routine part of care. Many providers need education and training in effective techniques for self-management support. Appropriate funding models and support for practice redesign—to introduce interprofessional team-based care, for example—are also important to allow providers to spend the time needed with patients and to expand the range of services they provide to support patients with more complex conditions.

3) Broaden and deepen efforts to reach more Canadians who need self-management supports. This can be accomplished by making existing, evidence-based programs more accessible (e.g., by adapting them for different cultures and languages and for patients with low literacy) and by facilitating newer approaches such as one-to-one interventions and peer support.

4) Engage patients and informal caregivers as a key part of any systematic approach. Individuals
affected by chronic conditions have a personal stake in the quality of the Canadian health care system. Collectively, the system is finally beginning to appreciate the important asset that patients and caregivers represent through their unique perspectives on quality of care.

The full report includes more detailed recommendations (page 44). Building on Canada’s strong foundation of primary health care, these actions would help create a sustainable path to enable patients with chronic conditions to help themselves.”