The 12th - 18th November is self care week ... this #WeMDT discussion is the first in our self care twitter discussions for the week and will focus on promoting self care for the people we care for.  The second discussion will be on Thursday 15th November and will explore self care for ourselves, as healthcare professionals. Self Care Week is an annual national awareness week that focuses on embedding support for self care across communities, families and generations. 

"Self Care is the actions that individuals take for themselves, on behalf of and with others in order to develop, protect, maintain and improve their health, wellbeing or wellness." 

(Self Care Forum 2018) 

The definition of Self Care is the active participation of individuals – either alone or in groups – in protecting and maintaining their health and wellbeing. This also means the empowering people with the confidence and information to look after themselves when they can, and visit the GP when they need to, gives people greater control of their own health and encourages healthy behaviours that help prevent ill health in the long-term.

This #WeMDT discussion aims to explore the following questions: 

How can Nurses and other health care professional help to support people with self care?

What do people understand by the term self-care, wider than self-management?

How can all health care professionals support people to be better engaged and improve their motivation for self care?