Why bother with a care plan?
A care planning document is a written document which could improve how you discuss your Epilepsy. Better discussions will lead to better understanding of what you want and how to help achieve it.
An appointment with your healthcare professional is a good method for describing how your health is at that moment, in that room. The problem is, that moment and that room is not a true reflection of what it’s like to live with Epilepsy; the good days, the bad days and the full spectrum of how it impacts your life.
Care planning makes the appointment a discussion, rather than an assessment. Planning your care with your healthcare professional means your contact with them can be fitted into the rest of your life, rather than isolated from it.
Making a care planning document means a true description of your health, your needs and your aims can be shared with anyone who supports you. It can enable all of your support network, including medical professionals, to understand the care you have had and what is required now.
The document means you’re making a plan to work from that everyone involved can reference and tracks how well you are doing.
It’s a record of things you’ve said to people so you don’t have the same conversation every time you go to the doctors or talk to a different person each time.
It doesn’t have to just be problems or symptoms on there. If one of my aims is that I want to go abroad on holiday and I am working towards that, it’s helpful if everyone knows that so they can be using all the different ways of helping me. Everyone can help me work towards the same thing.
We have created two care planning tools to help you prepare for conversations and make sure you and your needs are at the centre.
