The management of chronic disease and the contribution patients make to their own care is attracting widespread attention, nationally and internationally. A range of self-management courses have been developed by Kate Lorig and her team at Stanford University's Medical School since the early 1980s, and these have now been implemented throughout the UK. Designed for people with long-term health conditions, they are delivered by hundreds of agencies worldwide, and differentiate the concept of disease management (to be done by a health care professional) from the individual's management of life with a long-term condition (self-management).

This book explores how this work became important to the NHS and airs the arguments about the importance of lay leadership. It brings together those who have been instrumental in developing these courses, and assesses the value they hold for the different groups involved directly in them (participants, course trainers, staff), and those it will affect indirectly (GPs, nurses, policy makers, commissioners). The reader will find personal experience and accounts of the excitement in designing new work. Reflection on what happens to people attending courses is set alongside consideration of radical questions about the need for resilient communities. Next, the research reports are followed by considerations for policy makers and local agencies, voluntary and statutory. Finally, questions about the future direction and links to local communities are raised.

About the Author:
Roy Jones led the team that introduced Stanford's Arthritis Self Management Programme to the UK, as Director of Services at Arthritis Care. Between 1993 and 2000 the programme grew extensively and was piloted in the NHS after the adoption of the Expert Patients report in 2001. Roy served on the DoH Task Force and the DoH Implementation Group guiding those developments. Previously, as Director of the Council for Voluntary Service, Northampton and County, community development work formed his commitment to local level service delivery. He worked on the establishment of the Councils of Disabled People and supporting independent welfare rights services. His concern for disabled people continues as Vice Chair of the Disability Alliance. In his consultancy role he has worked for the Department of Health and a number of health management and pharmaceutical companies. His continuing academic links are primarily with Coventry University and The School of Pharmacy, London, UK.