Delivering person-centred care in long-term conditions

The components of supporting people with long-term conditions, and the incumbent skills and resources required, are increasingly well understood. However, more coherent and systematic approaches to delivery across care pathways are -required. In the setting of intermittent, discrete decisions about healthcare, the concept of shared decision making will apply. Support for self-management describes efforts to help people in living day to day with their condition(s). Care planning is relevant to proactively planning cycles of care and increasing involvement in care. The underpinning principles require a different mindset for clinicians and support for people to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to engage and participate in their health more effectively. Achieving this could provide the holy grail of delivering high-quality care at a population level, which is consistently centred around what is important to each individual person and what they want to achieve.