aktiChron ꟷ “fully active despite chronic illness”

Patients with chronic diseases require specific skills for managing their symptoms. Therefore, an education programme for chronically ill people will be developed at the University of Applied Sciences for Health Professionals Upper Austria. The programme will comprise six workshops, individual coaching sessions, and regular group meetings.

The programme will be implemented in a primary care centre. Experiences, effectiveness, and acceptance will be evaluated in a study.

Occupational Therapy Dietetics Physiotherapy Healthcare and Nursing

Term: 01.10.2022 — 31.10.2023

Chronically ill patients experience obstacles that are different from those of patients with acute symptoms, as their self-management skills are particularly challenged by the persistence of their disease. They must learn to adapt their lives to the changing disease-related conditions, adapt their health behaviour and develop coping strategies. Yet many people with chronic conditions encounter limits to their knowledge and self-management skills (Schaeffer & Haslbeck, 2016).

Empowerment enables individuals to experience self-efficacy, which leads to better self-management, health behaviour (i.e., behaviour change, lifestyle change), and adherence.

In a first step, a didactic health education model for therapists was developed, which aims at promoting self-management competences. The key elements of this model are:

Knowledge transfer (health literacy)
Encouragement of competences (skills, strategies)
Transfer to everyday life (change in health behaviour)

This model is the theoretical frame for the creation of an education programme to strengthen self-management competences of patients with chronic conditions. After testing it in practice, it will be revised. At the same time, questions about an implementation in the primary care sector, didactics, and optimal support of patients with chronic conditions will be clarified.