health action plans

Table of Contents

Health action plans were introduced by the government since 2001, in order to support people to achieve and maintain good health that places person centred thinking at the centre of this process. The government policy said that the health action plan should aim to improve health of people with learning disabilities. It had been recognised that if rights, choices and independency were going to be realised then the rights and supports were required in order to meet people’s health and needs. So by taking further action the government decided to provide guidance and tell people (doctors, nurses and health care professionals) about the health actions plans and health facilitation. The plan itself details the actions needed to maintain and improve health of an individual and any help they need to accomplish these actions. It is the best way to gather information from the right people and is most likely insured that actions are followed. Even though, it is acknowledged that there are many tools available to help people manage their health, none of them are shown to improve and ensure beneficial care towards an individual with specific needs. This health action plan is targeted to approach those who have a difficulty in understanding their health and who needs support in order to maintain their health beneficially. Using a person centred approach to this plan, will help a health professional develop a better picture of what sort of assistance an individual needs to best support them in being healthy. One of the aims was to address health inequality by ensuring that people with learning disabilities were able to access healthcare that they were entitled to. GP’s previously had no information on which patients within their system had a learning disability but within 5 years of the GP’s being aware of their patients additional information and needs, they are in a better position to meet those specific needs and also promote good health and prevent more serious conditions developing. The effective way of identifying a person’s health is by asking them to complete a one page profile. This can ensure them being specific to their own health encouraging independency. If the individual has no idea of how or what to write, they are assisted to what is known as a health facilitator. This health facilitator can support an individual by gathering and recording information about that person in stages. the plan recognises what is important to the person about their health and what is important to the person. Once this is completed the information is used to identifies