Worldwide, 5P of health - the patient, physician, policy maker, provider and people - are the decisive factors in the development of health. In Turkiye, the patient standard which is one of the 5P is almost nonexistent.
In this direction, patient empowerment is a relatively new emerging concept in health terminology all over the world. The patient empowerment programs, which are conducted through patient associations around the world, aim to remove patients and their relatives from being passive beneficiaries in health care services. Throughout these programs, patients and their relatives are prioritized to raise awareness about health, quality of life as a natural extension of health and the disease they are fighting actively. In a further step of these programs, patients and their relatives are supported to:
Please support patients and relatives as well as certification.
In Turkiye, such patient-centered approach has not yet developed. In Turkiye, patients are acting only as the beneficiaries of health services. Like patient associations, the awareness and anticipation of the benefits that can be born from unity are not yet available.
At this point, Promoting Healthy Life and Health Policies Association have set out to become an association that leads in capacity building to patient initiatives.
On April 2016, ‘The Diabetic Patient and Relatives Empowerment Program’ has started due to Struggling With Chronic Diseases Cooperation Protocol, signed between the Turkiye Ministry of Health Public Health Agency of Turkiye and Promoting Healthy Life and Health Policies Association. This program aims to provide patients and their relatives to become primary responsible for effective management of the disease with a patient-centered approach. This project will also play a processor role in laying the foundation for patient empowerment in Turkiye and creating the patient associations.
Turkiye Statistical Instıtute, Life Satisfaction Survey, 2014
http://www.tuik.gov.tr/PreHaberBultenleri.do?id=18... (Access Date :2 February (2015)