Helping patients know what to do to stay healthy is important, but the goal of self-management support is to help them adopt the behaviors that will keep them healthy over time. Motivating and coaching healthy behaviors is one method of supporting self-management that can be done very effectively by non-clinicians. By developing skills through training and practice, tasks required to support patients and familiessuch as making a specific plan of action, anticipating barriers, and connecting them with community resourcescan be the responsibility of members of the care team other than the physician, often with equivalent results.
For patients with chronic conditions, setting health goals with the help of a physician is an important step, but few patients achieve goals without more specific planning. Additional behavior change coachingspecifying action planning steps and anticipating barriersis needed to develop patient confidence in reaching goals. Medical assistants, nurses, nutritionists, behavioral health professionals, health educators or trained lay people, if trained in action planning and problem solving strategies, can effectively work with patients to define their action plans.
- Assist the patient in completing an Action Plan form and give them a copy to take home.
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