‘Self-care’ is the new disruption to health care coming to you
‘Self-care’ literally is caring for yourself. Humans have been doing this for ages and it is now about to become mainstream in health care. To be sure, that’s different from ‘self-medication’, “Self-medication is treating yourself, without even being sure what you are treating; it is guesswork,” says Christy Asala, an assistant programme manager at White […]
‘Self-care’ literally is caring for yourself. Humans have been doing this for ages and it is now about to become mainstream in health care.
To be sure, that’s different from ‘self-medication’, “Self-medication is treating yourself, without even being sure what you are treating; it is guesswork,” says Christy Asala, an assistant programme manager at White Ribbon Alliance.
“In ‘self-care’, you don’t get a headache and rush off to the pharmacy to treat malaria. You may run a rapid-diagnostic-test for malaria to determine you have malaria,” she explains.
Self-care has been around for a long time; from checking your blood pressure and blood sugar to self-examining your breasts in front of your mirror for telltale lumps and using a test strip to check if a missed period could mean pregnancy.
Now, a “global self-care trailblazer group” is bringing self-care into more visibility and pushing for a roadmap.
“Self-care is not replacing the health system. It is just about having informed decision to be able to take the first point of care,” says Asala.
Any roadmap would have to clearly show the point where self-care veers into self-medication and ensure the line is kept. It would also have to clear hurdles and obstacles that regulatory agencies for laboratory science, pharmaceuticals and even health workers will throw in its way.
White Ribbon Alliance this week convened a workshop for such stakeholders to consult on strategies to advocate for self-care, beginning with sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Similar meetings are taking place in countries around the world. Among other things, the push in Nigeria is to have the legislature and health ministry remove policy barriers that prohibit access to self-care products from labeling certain medications as “over the counter” or not to changing age restrictions as well as limits against task shifting.
With the concept of self-care gelling and coming into its own, “we are bringing out the fact that self-care is not entirely new,” says Asala.
“We are making people open up and accept it the more. It relieves the burden on the health system. It is a very important health concept that can help with universal health coverage.”
More research into self-care is a strategy for the roadmap, but previous research also supports the recondite concept.
The findings of surveys into self-care “lend credence to protocols of self-care, if we can bring guidelines to regulate the role of self-care,” says Kayode Afolabi, director for reproductive health division at the federal health ministry.
Several projects being implemented across Nigeria have components of self-care built into them – one includes HIV self-testing; another supports countries in efforts to introduce next-generation family-planning products.
The federal health ministry has said it will provide leadership around self-care and willing to work with advocates and will engage organisations working around self-care.
But the defining line is crucial, says Asala.
“So, if a woman is used to self-examining her breast, she knows when something is different and can get to a hospital. We are here, so we can draw the line so people will not abuse it.