Towards a healthcare system that promotes patient self-management…

The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR) has been commissioned as the evaluation partner for the London Deanery’s Coaching for Health course (2012-13).

This Coaching for Health course comes at a time when the UK population is growing in size and age and people are more likely to suffer from long term illnesses that require ongoing care. Engaging people in their well-being and healthcare is increasingly being seen as an essential component of reducing ill health and spiralling health costs. In this environment there needs to be a change to the way that systems work and this includes promoting patient self management.

The vision of the London Deanery Coaching for Health course is to promote patient self-management in order to improve patient outcomes and to increase patient engagement in healthy lifestyle changes. A key element in this change in the professional-patient relationship is the move away from a more paternalistic model, and mindset, in which health care professionals ‘do things to’ and makes decisions for people, to one of partnership, or of ‘co-creating’ health, in which the professional is helping people take more control of their health and care. A coaching approach supports people to set goals and identify ways to achieve them. A growing interest in health coaching has led to a burgeoning literature and although the evidence base remains at an early stage studies have demonstrated the benefits of health professionals taking up new roles, and using new approaches, to help patients change their behaviour and better manage their health.

The evaluation of the Coaching for Health course will therefore be critical in both testing / demonstrating impact and improving delivery and will focus on two main areas: 1) the most effective way of training healthcare professionals in Coaching for Health; and 2) the result of the training programmes, through exploring a) did the training result in healthcare professionals using the coaching skills in their normal practice and b) did this result in a change in patient outcome?The evaluation follows a Theory of Change approach as well as using the Kirkpatrick training evaluation model. Project activities include: i) an evidence based literature review on health care coaching impacting changes in patient behaviour as well as reviewing effective approaches of delivering health coaching to practitioners; ii) the design of an evaluation framework; iii) the design and analysis of data collection instruments such as and pre and post course questionnaires; and iv) providing ongoing evaluation support for the programme.