Long-term conditions: 2. Supporting and enabling self-care

This article is the second of a series focusing on long-term conditions. It explores supported self-care identifying that this is the most appropriate approach to managing long-term conditions in 70-80% of patients with a chronic illness. The paper focuses on the Department of Health for England and Wales flagship initiative; the Expert Patient Programme. This lay-led self-management programme for people affected by a physical long-term condition is currently being rolled out by PCTs throughout the NHS and is seen as a key mechanism for empowering individuals and reducing resource demand in long-term conditions. The history, content, current and future models of the Expert Patient Programme will be described and the paper concludes by discussing future challenges for the programme as illuminated by two external evaluations.