It’s Self Care Week this week when people are being encouraged to choose self care for a healthier and happier life. Self Care Week is an annual national awareness week that focuses on encouraging self care across communities, families and generations.
This is because more needs to be done in supporting people to look after their own health. Empowering people to self care has many benefits for their short- and long-term health. Helping people to look after their own and their family’s health also helps to manage demand on health services.
People in the UK, on average, experience nearly four symptoms every fortnight – the three most common being headaches, feeling run down and joint pain. Most of these are taken care of at home, without people going for professional healthcare.
Presently, around 80 per cent of all care in the UK is self care. Most people feel comfortable managing common minor ailments such as coughs and colds. This is especially true when they are confident in recognising symptoms and have successfully treated it before using over-the-counter medicines.
However, there are still 57 million GP consultations a year for minor ailments, at a cost to the NHS of a massive £2 billion. These take up around an hour every day for every GP.
So this year’s campaign called Choose Self Care For Life involves:
- Understanding how to self care for yourself and the important people in your life.
- Being mindful of your health and happiness this winter.
- Encouraging people to take control of their health and to feel good about themselves.
- Staying healthy by eating well and being active.
An ideal way is to make sure you are active and fit – and then you’re more likely to avoid many of the ailments that go around, especially at this time of year for a few months. Our gyms are open 24/7 to help you achieve this. Hope to see you soon!
