About Patient Empowerment
Patient empowerment puts the patient in the heart of services. It is about designing and delivering health and social care services in a way, which is inclusive and enables citizens to take control of their health care needs.
An empowered activated patient:
- Understands their health condition and its effect on their body.
- Feels able to participate in decision-making with their healthcare professionals
- Feels able to make informed choices about treatment.
- Understands the need to make necessary changes to their lifestyle for managing their condition.
- Is able to challenge and ask questions of the healthcare professionals providing their care.
- Takes responsibility for their health and actively seeks care only when necessary
- Actively seeks out, evaluates and makes use of information.
Empowered patients will better understand how to navigate between the many players in the healthcare system including family, physicians, health insurers, healthcare regulators, pharmacists. When unsure about where to go or what to do next, the empowered patient will feel confident to ask for the information they need.
Watch the video below
