Abstract

A sustainable health care system requires governments, health care professionals and consumers committed to health promotion.

Patient Education and Wellness is a practical handbook for manual therapists enabling them to participate in the wellness revolution. Primary contact practitioners have a vital role to play in shifting consumers from a high to low risk population. The challenge for health professionals is to both enhance health literacy and motivate patients to assume increased personal responsibility and this text provides practitioners with tools for achieving these ends in a cost-effective manner. Wellness modules are taught within undergraduate programs and this handbook will support these programs.

The book and accompanying CD-ROM provide a valuable resource to help practitioners in their role of working with patients to promote healthy lifestyles - the text provides the framework, and the CD-ROM the wellness toolbox.

The CD-ROM provides self-assessment handouts for making patients aware of good habits to acquire and bad habits to avoid. Easy-to-use protocols are provided for common health issues such as diet, smoking and substance abuse and an accessible model presented for a personal health contract that patients can implement to reduce their risk of life-threatening disease.

KEY FEATURES

• Presents a model for developing a wellness contract that patients can implement • Easy-to-use protocols provided for common scenarios • Addresses the problem areas most commonly raised by patients with regard to their health • Includes a CD-ROM containing patient education materials which can be given by practitioners to patients as a self-care guide and used by both practitioners and patients as wellness monitoring tools.

Jenny Jamison has been involved with both the Australian Chiropractors Association and the American Chiropractic Association wellness initiatives which aim to facilitate this profession's transition from 'healers only' to 'healers and educators'. Wellness care is being actively embraced by informed practitioners. Jennifer Jamison was Professor of Primary Care, Division of Health Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia prior to taking on the role of wellness consultant to the Australian Chiropractors association.