A growing evidence base for care and support planning

The evidence to support the implementation of a care and support planning approach is building.

National Voices and The Health Foundation have both published summaries of evidence supporting care and support planning.^1,2

A recent Cochrane review also concluded that “personalised care planning leads to improvements in certain indicators of physical and psychological health status, and people’s capability to self-manage their condition when compared to usual care”.³

These effects appeared to be greater when the personal care planning intervention is more comprehensive, more intensive and better integrated into routine care.³

An illustration of a nurse with a patient

I had a [bereaved] gentleman come in recently for his review and, you know, you sort of say ‘how are you?’ and he burst into tears and went ‘I’m dreadful’ and I’m like ‘OK’… But that was more important to him, at that time, than looking to see what his blood pressure was or what his cholesterol was or anything else.

Healthcare professional

As the NHS moves towards more person-centred care, the BHF programme has added to this evidence base – using heart and circulatory conditions as an exemplar – that care and support planning can be implemented at practice, community and health system level.

Next: Programme legacy

References

1 National Voices, 2013. A Narrative for Person Centred Coordinated Care.
2 de Silva, D. Evidence: Helping people help themselves. A review of the evidence considering whether it is worthwhile to support self-management. The Health Foundation, 2011
3 Coulter, A. et al. 2015. Personalised care planning for adults with chronic or long-term health conditions. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 3: CD010523.