The Living Well self-management programme is a free of charge, 2.5 hours per week continuing for 6 weeks thus a 15 hour programme with up to 15 participants with chronic health conditions or carers of people with chronic health conditions. The programmes take place on the same day/time each week. In Midwest, the majority of our programmes are done inperson at various locations throughout the region.
The programme is ran in a very friendly and non-intrusive way and addresses topics such as fatigue, sleep, pain, stress, physical activity, healthy eating, difficult emotions, low mood, depression and general wellbeing. The programme is ran by 2 facilitators, one of who must have a chronic condition themselves. Each participant is given a 400 page reference book ”Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions” which is a bestselling medical book but written in non-medical language.
Living Well is an evidence based, structured Self-management Programme originally developed in Stanford University, California in the 1990’s. The programme has been delivered in Ireland since 2005 and is used worldwide. It has been shown to improve quality of life and mental health and adopts a population health approach.
There is an informative podcast on HSE YouTube: https://youtu.be/Jd9TXot-PzA
