Page: Self Care

Self-care can empower consumers by giving them the knowledge and tools to improve the quality of their daily lives. For example, consumers often treat minor symptoms, such as a mild headache or a cold, themselves using products purchased over-the-counter at a local pharmacy or grocery store.

In 1998, a special working group of the World Health Organization (WHO) offered an inclusive definition of self-care: “Self-care in health refers to the activities individuals, families and communities undertake with the intention of enhancing health, preventing disease, limiting illness, and restoring health. These activities are derived from knowledge and skills from the pool of both professional and lay experience. They are undertaken by lay people on their own behalf, either separately or in participative collaboration with professionals.”

In today’s rapidly changing healthcare environment, self-care should be recognised as an integral element of a coordinated and comprehensive national health policy.

The aim of this event is to describe an evidence-based approach to self-care of mild COVID-19 symptoms

Online delivery of goods became very common nowadays, and even increased during COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns. The way consumers obtain medicines, as special type of goods, is also changing. In some countries, buying medicines online is becoming common practice, because buyers are preferring to order their medicines through a click of a button rather than taking a trip to a pharmacy or a drug store. However, online customers may have difficulty knowing whether an Internet pharmacy is a legitimate operation, without the same confidence as they would have had in the neighborhood pharmacy. What are the practices in place to make sure that the online patient or customer can rely that they will receive the medicine they need? What are the advantages and disadvantages to accessing medicines on-line from patients, as well as from pharmacists’ point of view? Since medicines are regulated products and the need for consideration of ethical issues in access to medicines is important, the online pharmacy services have both advantages and disadvantages. What are the medicines patients are allowed to receive online in different countries? What is the scope of online pharmaceutical services vis-à-vis medicine procurement, distribution, online prescriptions, internet drug information, pharmaceutical care services, etc.?

This event will set the scene for FIP’s self-care digital events programme. It will describe what the programme consists of and the main learning outcomes. This topic is important because pharmacy teams are increasingly supporting patients with self-care. The event will also describe what self-care involves, its benefits and the future of self-care. There will be a panel discussion about how pharmacy can shape the future of self-care.

This webinar will present selected findings from a recent FIP survey on community pharmacy models and self-care. It will provide an overview of trends affecting community pharmacies’ sustainability, namely the impact of players such as Amazon or the evolution of remuneration models for professional services. It will also provide a snapshot of community pharmacy in China.

This webinar will focus on the role of nutrition in the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, and the role that pharmacists can play to support healthy nutrition choices for different population groups. We plan to invite a range of expert speakers to address important aspects such as the role of community of pharmacists in diabetes prevention, screening, referral and management, the role of dietary supplements in disease management and one example of a community pharmacy nutrition service. In addition, we will also present selected aspects from the FIP handbook on nutrition and weight management for pharmacists, to be launched that day.

This event will showcase the four pillars of the FIP Community Pharmacy Section’s Vision – review, prescribe, dispense, administer. It will also signpost how to empower patients, pharmacists, healthcare professionals about the value of selfcare and the importance of appropriate management for selecting medicines for self-care.

This webinar will focus on the the role of community of pharmacists in weight management and obesity prevention, screening, referral and management, pharmacy-led weight management approaches and the intergenerational correlations in hypercholesterolemia and obesity. In addition, we will also present selected aspects from the FIP handbook on nutrition and weight management for pharmacists, to be launched that day.

This event will showcase current self-care delivery in community pharmacy across the globe and explore how future delivery could look. People centred care is at the heart of self-care and so this is an important area to explore including the associated communication skills. Strategies to build trust and rapport is vital to self-care will also be discussed. This topic is important because pharmacy teams are increasingly supporting patients with self-care.