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Expert Patients Programme

Helping you to regain your independence, manage everyday situations and boost your mental health and wellbeing if you're living with a long-term condition.

Contact us

0300 013 2045, select option three
07944 935 047
kcht.epp@nhs.net

Who we are

We are trained volunteer facilitators who deliver a course designed for people who live with one or more long term health conditions – to help you regain your confidence and take control of your health.

What we do

The Expert Patients Programme (EPP) is a free six week course for people who live with one or more long term health conditions – or who have personal experience of someone living with one or more long term health conditions.

Our trained facilitators will guide you through the programme – helping you to learn skills to manage the things that you may experience as a result of living with your long-term health condition – including: pain, fatigue, poor sleep, difficult emotions -like fear, frustration, and anger- stress, anxiety and physical limitations.

The course offers a toolkit of techniques to help you improve your quality of life, to help you to manage your condition and the emotional changes brought about by your condition.

Our course covers;

  • developing your communication skills
  • managing your emotions
  • managing daily activities
  • working with the healthcare system
  • health resources
  • planning for the future
  • understand exercising and healthy eating
  • managing fatigue, sleep, and difficult emotions like pain, anger and depression.

Attending the course also provides a great opportunity for you to meet other people who share similar experiences.

Each weekly session lasts two and a half hours including a break.

How do you use this service?

You do not need a referral to access this service, simply give us a call for more information or details of courses running in your area. In most cases we would recommend that you have been living with your condition for at least six months before joining the programme.

Courses

Courses are delivered in person in community venues and online – the individual must have a reliable internet connection and device with a camera.

Everyone attending the course gets a free handbook – a valuable resource with lots of information about managing your life with a long term health condition.

If you have difficulty in groups or leaving home we offer.

The toolkit

We will send you a pack, which includes:

  • The course book – Living a healthy life with chronic conditions
  • A tool kit booklet
  • An exercise CD
  • A relaxation CD.

Then we will support the individual  with a weekly conference call to help them  find the right tools to help  manage their long term condition.

To sign up for a course or learn more contact us by email at kcht.epp@nhs.net.

0300 013 2045, select option three.

Courses:

  • Ashford in person - starting early next year
  • Virtual course - starting in January.

Your stories

People share how the Expert Patients Programme helped them.

Esther's story

"I was fortunate to have been referred to participate in an interactive six-week EPP course in 2019 and found it to be highly invaluable. The facilitators, who themselves have experience in living with long-term health conditions, provided me with reassuring and positive guidance throughout the course. It helped me to build my self-confidence back up again and also provided me with the knowledge/tools and understanding of how I can better live with my long-term health condition. Within the module there are a variety of topics, essential in self-management such as: techniques to deal with problems such as stress, pain and fatigue and the appropriate use of medication, better breathing and relaxation techniques and healthy eating habits.

I was so impressed by the course that I have since trained to become a volunteer facilitator to deliver this life-changing course to other people in the community that live with long-term health conditions. I want to be able to empower others, in the same way that the facilitators on my course empowered me. To be able to provide support to those that need it most and to see the benefits of the changes within others throughout the six weeks, is truly rewarding.

I really can not recommend this course enough, as it really does help people to regain control of your life and to live it to the best of their ability."

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