Question: If a patient has a chronic or long-term health condition that
is getting them down due to pain, fatigue and difficult emotions, what can you
do to help?
Answer: Refer them to a
PATH workshop so they can learn strategies and techniques to deal with those
problems. Information gleaned at a workshop includes problem solving, goal setting,
decision making, relaxation techniques and the importance of taking care of
themselves. They’ll learn about other topics such as managing symptoms and
medications, healthy eating, physical activity and communicating with family,
friends and health care providers. Does this sound good? Then read on.
PATH stands for Personal Action Toward Health
and is Michigan's version of the award winning Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program out of Stanford
University’s School of Medicine, Division of Family and Community Medicine. There
is also a Diabetes Self-Management Program. Although other states have
different names for their programs, one thing stays the same: the fidelity of
Stanford’s program and the license required to run it. Practice Transformation
Institute has one of those licenses.
The PATH workshop
is:
- two and a half hours
- once a week
- for six weeks
- in a convenient, easily accessible community setting
- free or at a very low cost
- conducted by two trained leaders
- highly participative, supportive, encouraging, educational
- a way to help patients become better self-managers
- confidence building
- fun
People with a
chronic or long-term health condition attend together and, as a result, are
better able to face the daily challenges of living with an ongoing health
condition. One of the main concepts of the workshop is action planning and setting
realistic, achievable goals that the patient is accountable for. The action
plan has to be something the attendee wants to do, be achievable,
action-specific, and answer the questions of what, when, how much and how
often, and they must have a confidence level of seven or higher. Each week
attendees and the leaders develop their own action plan and report back the
following week. Suggestions and help are given depending on the outcome of the
action plan.
We need YOUR help. This program has been proven
to be effective, but only if participants are there. Health care professionals
must spread the word to patients, friends and family. Recommend it, write it as
a referral, have brochures in the office, talk it up.
Did you know that in NCQA’s Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition
Program, there are four factors where a PATH class referral can be used to help
garner points? Two of PTI’s PATH leaders are also NCQA PCMH Certified Content
Experts who can perform NCQA PCMH readiness assessments, document reviews,
application/survey tool assistance, practice team coaching and phone
consultation as needed. See PTI’s website for more details.
If you are in
Michigan, see our PTI calendar for PATH programs already scheduled and dates
for future workshops. Please keep PTI in mind if you’d like a class held in a community
near you. We can provide the leaders and the promotional materials. Remember
that a PATH class can be held almost anywhere. Places such as physician offices,
senior centers, churches, libraries, hospitals and other community settings are
great choices. We believe in this. We’re fired up and we want you to be fired
up, too! PATH works!
Next workshop currently scheduled at:
The Physician Training Center (Practice Transformation
Institute)
26550
John R
Madison Heights, MI 48071
Madison Heights, MI 48071
Type: PATH Chronic Disease Self-Management Program
Begins: Thursday, June 12, 2014
Ends: Thursday, July 24, 2014
*Workshop will not be held Thursday, July 3 due to the July 4th holiday.
Class will resume the following week.
To register:
To find a PATH
workshop near you:
To learn more about
the Stanford Chronic Disease
Self-Management Program:
