How to put our health in our own hands
With aging populations and increases in chronic disease, most of us or a loved one will be patients in the health care system one day. It’s unfortunately, just a matter of time.
Managing our health can be challenging at the best of times! Navigating the health care system, multiple specialists, appointments, medications, conditions. Throw a pandemic into the mix and the whole landscape changes for us as patients and for our health care teams.
How can we be ready to navigate the waters of the health care system with confidence and certainty?
The T.E.A.M Approach© is a simple and easy-to-remember tool that can help us become more health confident in our health and health care and partner with our health care team.
The T.E.A.M Approach© can be used by patients and caregivers as well as health care professionals who are looking to engage more with their patients.
Engaged and health confident people are more likely to stay on treatments, are more willing to take responsibility for their care, take preventative measures and seek early diagnosis.
This is how we can put our health in our own hands!
Tracking Our Health
We already track so many parts of our lives. How can we apply this to our health and health care?
A great area to start with is keeping records of everything important about our health. This is the story of our body. It helps create a ‘medical profile’ of sorts. Keep records of everything important about your health e.g. medical history, symptoms, medications, health records and copies of test results.
Being Educated about our Health
Being informed and educated but not overwhelmed is a key way to become more confident in managing our health. Information helps us make informed decisions with our health care team.
Access and understand information in an understandable and reliable format to help you make informed decisions.
Asking Questions about our Health
When we ask questions about our health and health care, we open up communication between ourselves and our health care team. But asking questions is not an easy thing to do! A good place to start is to open up with questions such as: Why, what if and how can we do this together?