Self Care Week

Self Care Week 2011 takes place from November 14-20. It aims to help people take care of themselves, and lets them know what’s available to help them look after their health. This year’s campaign is being run in partnership with the Self Care Forum.

What’s the theme for this year?
Technology is this year’s theme. Find out how technology can help self care by reading about help at home.

How can I find out what’s happening?
You can find out more about local self care week events through your primary care trust (PCT). You can search for your local PCT here.

What is self care?
Self care means keeping fit and healthy, as well as knowing how to take medicines, treat minor ailments and seek help when you need it. If you have a long-term condition, self care is about understanding that condition and how to live with it.

There’s lots of information on the NHS Choices website about how everyone can use self care to improve their health and wellbeing. You can read about how to:

• lose weight
• get fit
• stop smoking
• cut down on alcohol
• eat more healthily

You can also find a GP, find a pharmacy, or find an NHS dentist.

LifeCheck is a free service to help you and your family improve your health. Answer a few simple questions and LifeCheck will give you advice tailored to your age, gender and lifestyle.

If you have a long-term condition, Your health, your way will show you how self care can help you cope better with your condition and get more out of life.

Read about how to make small changes to improve your lifestyle and use our interactive healthy living tools to get personalised advice on how to improve your lifestyle.

NHS Choices is also a great place to get detailed information on specific long-term conditions. Look for your condition in Health A-Z. Many long-term conditions are covered on the site, including the most common ones such as:

• diabetes
• arthritis
• coronary heart disease
• dementia
• depression
• stroke
• asthma

There's also a long-term condition check to help you find out if you're getting the right type of NHS care and support for your condition and situation.

You can get health advice 24 hours a day from NHS Direct. Use the online symptom checker or, if you need to talk to someone, call 0845 46 47.