Self-Care Assessments
- Feb 10, 2017
- 2 min read
When you become sick or have a medical problem, you will want to see a health professional; you expect to get better after seeing one. What you are doing is looking for a cure.
When you visit a health care professional, they will want to assess your condition. They will do a medical assessment to determine what your general health is like. A medical assessment will:
Help them make a diagnosis
Assist them in ordering the right treatment
These are all done after you seek help and complain.
Self-Care
Self Care is health care provided by you at home. When you provide Self Care your aim is to prevent illnesses and diseases. You are not looking for a cure, you are looking for healthy living.
You do not need to see a doctor, but you need to assess your own health status to provide self care that is good for you.
A Simple Guide.
A good place to start a self care assessment is with knowledge about your health status. For example there are health risk factors that should be aware of; knowing what they are and if you have them are crucial to good health.
The World Health Organization defines a risk factor as, "Any attribute, characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury."
For chronic diseases these are the major ones:
Physical in-activity- Not active enough
Poor /Unhealthy eating habits
Smoking tobacco
Alcohol abuse
Overweight
Exposure to air pollution
Do any of those apply to you?
Other Self Care Factors:
*Are you getting enough sleep, how much sleep?
*Have you got energy to do what you want to do?
*Do you get enough rest- May be you work overtime too frequently?
By knowing the answers to these questions, you are making a Self Care assessment. Health conscious people do so without being aware.
Some of the answers just require a Yes or No, while some require simple home tests. For example to assess your body weight you can use the body mass index( BMI) calculator online, it is free.
Even if you already have a disease, you will need to provide Self-Care at home. This would involve more advanced care to include medical advice and appointments.
"Self Care will begin at home before the need for medical attention and will continue at home after one."
Anyone can develop self care skills, all it takes is an interest in healthy living. To start providing self care, you need consumer health education. To start this process FREE,
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