Self-care may be substantially outside the reach of health and social systems, but many government policy decisions have a bearing on the practice. As a good illustration, the UN 2012 resolution A/RES/66/2 states in Article 36:

“Recognize that effective non-communicable disease prevention and control require leadership and multisectoral approaches for health at the government level, including, as appropriate, health in all policies and whole-of-government approaches across such sectors as health, education, energy, agriculture, sports, transport, communication, urban planning, environment, labour, employment, industry and trade, finance, and social and economic development;”

‘Health in all Policies’ and the ‘Social Determinants of Health’ are useful concepts championed by the WHO. Developing policy recommendations that encourage self-care would be very helpful in creating a positive self-care environment.

Policy recommendations also need to be developed for the roles and activities healthcare professionals and others need to adopt to encourage self-care.
The ISF is working with others to help devise self-care friendly policies.