Expert Patients' Programme

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Wandsworth sees first graduates from the programme

On Tuesday 28 March 2006 Wandsworth Teaching PCT's first Expert Patients Programme course of the year came to an end. The 14 patients who completed the course were presented with certificates by Helen Walley, Chief Executive, at a special ceremony at Doddington Health Centre in Battersea.

The Expert Patients Programme is a self management course for people who live with a long term health condition like diabetes or heart disease. The aim of the course is to give people a better quality of life, with fewer admissions to hospital and skills that will help them to manage their condition better.

The course in Wandsworth has been run by volunteer tutors Kiron Kurien and Susan Flemming. Patients share their experiences with other people in a similar situation and learn the skills and confidence to manage their illness from tutors who are also living with long term conditions.

Areas covered by the course are:

• Dealing with pain and extreme tiredness
• Coping with feelings of depression
• Relaxation techniques and exercise
• Healthy eating
• Communicating with family, friends and health professionals
• Planning for the future
• Medication

Helen Walley, Chief Executive, said �People who know best about long term conditions are those people that actually live with them. That's why this innovative course is proving such a huge success in Wandsworth. The Expert Patients Programme runs alongside the treatment provided by the patients' own health professionals. Today I have heard first hand how the skills and confidence gained on the course helps people to manage their condition better on a daily basis, making them less dependent on the NHS and social services.�

Kamla Malik, who attended the Expert Patients Programme in February 2005, said, �Attending the Expert Patients Programme was the first step to getting my life back. I am now not so dependent on medication to control my symptoms and I only have to go to my doctors once every two months rather than every two weeks.�

The course has proved to be such a success that the April course was fully booked within days of being advertised. A new six week course is planned to start in Wandsworth on Monday 12 June 2006. We are also gearing up to schedule more courses for later this year.

April 28, 2006