Help2care: ehealth strategies for self care of users and caregivers based on Nightingale's work

To report the experience of design and implementation of the Help2Care (an ehealth program that aims to support informal caregivers of dependent people); and to identify its structure and functionality.

This is a Portuguese experience report about Help2Care, a practice-based action research project carried out between 2017 and 2019, having as a guiding axis Florence Nightingale's concepts about the relevance of the home-care environment.

The Help2Care program revealed itself to be a valuable support tool for providing better healthcare learning, counselling, and assistance of the informal caregivers of dependent people. Different ehealth strategies were used to empower caregivers in self-care in order to have a safe transition between contexts of care at the time of patient discharge.

Help2Care allows to inspire other ways of providing care, as well as a reduction in the readmission rate in health organizations for patients who reveal poor care support in home environments.