Self-care spans the wellness spectrum, from disease prevention to managing symptoms and common ailments, and the use of non-prescription medicines and medical devices. Globally, people are taking greater responsibility for their physical and mental health and are actively seeking reliable information to make informed decisions. Promoting self-care means empowering individuals to responsibly engage in managing their own health in an informed manner, rather than leaving them with no care. As pharmacists increasingly enable patients to make better health decisions, they must assure them that they may always count on their professional advice.

This event is jointly organised by FIP, the World Health Organization and the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Research Programme in Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP).

Every year, the 24th of June to 24th of July marks Self-Care Month, with a focus on increasing awareness of this subject and available interventions, celebrating current benefits/ achievements, and calling for renewed commitments and action to expand health systems to include self-care interventions. Self-care is at the basis of healthier lives and populations, and therefore it is a pillar of more sustainable health systems and universal health coverage. As people around the world take greater responsibility for their physical, mental, and emotional health, they are actively seeking comprehensive and reliable information to make informed decisions, with or without the assistance of healthcare professionals, including pharmacists. This event explores global self-care initiatives and highlights how pharmacists can utilise these in their practice and empower the public to promote self-care practices.

Most common skin diseases are rarely life-threatening; however, they have a negative impact on the quality of life of individuals and require care and treatment. They affect patients’ physical and mental well-being, their ability to function, and their social interactions. Leveraging on their accessibility and convenience, pharmacists are well-positioned to manage these conditions and offer accurate and reliable self-care information and products to empower individuals to manage such health problems. This event explores some common skin ailments pharmacists encounter and their role in managing these ailments to promote good health and general well-being.

Pharmacists play a crucial role in supporting behaviour change, significantly impacting medication adherence. By offering personalised counselling, education, and motivational interviewing, pharmacists help patients understand the importance of their medication, address barriers to adherence, and foster healthier habits. This proactive engagement can lead to better health outcomes by ensuring patients take their medications as prescribed, reducing the risk of complications, and enhancing overall treatment efficacy. Furthermore, pharmacists' accessibility and frequent interactions with patients position them uniquely to reinforce adherence strategies and provide continuous support, ultimately improving patient health and reducing healthcare costs.

Join our digital event featuring FIP experts and specialists in Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) for a key discussion on the evolving role of pharmacists in IDA prevention and management. We will launch the "Iron Deficiency Anaemia: Managing Symptoms and Supporting Self-Care" handbook, equipping pharmacists with practical insights. We will explore global data and trends, engage in interactive activities, and gain a deeper understanding of IDA. Learn from community and clinical pharmacists' perspectives and join a panel discussion with experts to address challenges, technological advancements, patient education, and collaborative care models in IDA management.

Pharmacy professionals are fully committed to an interprofessional and person-centred approach to healthcare. Where the regulatory framework allows, a wide range of point-of-care tests (POCT) can be carried out in community pharmacies. POCT can be incorporated into disease management programmes to monitor the effects of treatment in people living with non-communicable diseases. In addition, in acute situations, pharmacy professionals can use POCT to support clinical decision-making and provide rapid, safe pharmaceutical care. These tests provide valuable data to inform health-related decisions and reduce avoidable visits to primary care physicians or emergency departments. 

Common ailment schemes (CAS) (aka minor ailment schemes) are programmes where patients can receive advice, care and, when needed, treatment for an agreed range of common, self-limiting health problems, generally without the need for appointment. They are equally important for triaging patients that do require being seen by a medical doctor or nurse. Such schemes greatly contribute to providing accessible, agile and quality care to patients, and to reducing pressure on general practice and emergency departments, thus making health systems more efficient. FIP conducted a global study on common ailments schemes, including a literature review, a survey of its member organisations, a compilation of case studies and an insight board meeting.

This event holds significant importance as it aims to discuss effective strategies for empowering pharmacy teams in their self-care practices. We will explore various aspects, including leveraging technology, showcasing successful community pharmacy initiatives, and emphasizing the importance of patient engagement.

By bringing together experts and stakeholders, this event will foster knowledge exchange, shed light on global insights, and provide practical approaches to enhance self-care within the pharmacy profession.

Empowering patient self-care improves health outcomes and reduces the burden of diseases. Improving health and self-care literacy is key to empowering pharmacy-based self-care. This is especially important when it comes to the management of minor ailments through pharmacy. Consisting of a series of five events focusing on common health issues, this new FIP digital programme aims to examine how pharmacists can be enabled to improve health and self-care literacy. Approaches for each of the five areas of minor ailments will be discussed including embedding health and self-care literacy into education and training, developing self-diagnosis and self-medication protocols, widening access to patient information, and improving referral strategies.

The demand for travel health and travel medicine services is rapidly growing with the return levels of international travel. Patients are frequently turning to community pharmacies for advice on disease reduction and maintaining personal health whilst travelling. Pretravel preparation is important for many reasons one of which is supporting global health policies and strategies. In some countries, legislation has been devolved to allow pharmacists to prescribe medication and vaccinate travellers. However, this is not the situation globally and many countries place restrictions on this type of pharmacy practice. Amongst other objectives, this event raises awareness of pretravel consultation services that can be provided in a community setting without prescribing or vaccination and explores appropriate products for patient use.

Self-care is an integral part of healthcare systems, contributing to healthcare cost savings, better allocation of resources and improved health outcomes in the population. Pharmacists are well placed in the community to support health-related decisions and facilitate informed self-care. FIP aims to support pharmacists in this role through advocacy and by developing professional resources in the area of self-care. This event will showcase a variety of FIP publications, including the launch of a new handbook.

This event discusses how targeted switching of prescription only medicines to non-prescription medicines (Over The Counter medicines) can contribute to self-care of a nation’s population. Availability of diagnostics in the pharmacy and beyond can also make an impact on self-care.

Pharmacy teams are increasingly supporting children and their carers with self-care. This webinar will focus particularly on appropriate management of choices of medicines and products to support children’s health, and the role of the pharmacist. A case study will be presented and the event will conclude with a panel discussion.

There is variability across the globe in the provision of universal healthcare. Self-care is the ability to maintain and improve individual’s health, prevent or limit diagnosed illnesses, and address self-treatable conditions. Self care is not no care and it is not necessarily practised in isolation. It may involve support and advice from others, such as expert pharmacy teams.  This event discusses how self-care can contribute to Universal Health Coverage from the perspectives of providers of healthcare services and public and patients.

Sore throat is a common self-limiting condition which often leads to patients presenting in the pharmacy for advice, treatment options and reassurance. Sore throat is predominantly a viral condition for which symptomatic management offers the most appropriate course of action. Effective diagnosis, communication and managing expectations can prevent unnecessary onward referral or inappropriate antibiotic use.

Hygiene practices including hand and surface disinfection form part of our first line of defence by helping to reduce the spread of the infections such as COVID-19. These interventions also have an impact on many common infections such as cold and seasonal flu. The pharmacy team are the most accessible healthcare provider and are a convenient source of advice for patients and public in the maintenance of appropriate hand and surface hygiene practices.

This event asked how healthcare can be rebuilt amidst a global pandemic and focus on the important role that selfcare plays. It also looked at the enablers that will accelerate self-care through community pharmacy and how this builds towards Universal Health Coverage.

Self-care can empower consumers by giving them the knowledge and tools to improve the quality of their daily lives. For example, consumers often treat minor symptoms, such as a mild headache or a cold, themselves using products purchased over-the-counter at a local pharmacy or grocery store.

In 1998, a special working group of the World Health Organization (WHO) offered an inclusive definition of self-care: “Self-care in health refers to the activities individuals, families and communities undertake with the intention of enhancing health, preventing disease, limiting illness, and restoring health. These activities are derived from knowledge and skills from the pool of both professional and lay experience. They are undertaken by lay people on their own behalf, either separately or in participative collaboration with professionals.”

In today’s rapidly changing healthcare environment, self-care should be recognised as an integral element of a coordinated and comprehensive national health policy.

This event will explore latest developments in digital health that supports self-care. It will identify practical strategies to appraise latest technology and manage misinformation and the ‘infodemic’. Current practice and role of the pharmacist in digital health is also discussed.

Diabetic foot is a devasting complication of diabetes that can lead to loss of a limb and life. It has a complex pathology characterised by neuropathy, ischaemia and slow healing. Often the resulting loss in feeling leaves patients unable to sense the damage to their feet. 451 Million suffer with diabetes worldwide, 1 in 10 will get a foot ulcer, 80% go to have an amputation, 8 out of 10 amputations can be prevented by intervention.

This event will explore the evolution in our understanding of health literacy and identify practical strategies to improve health literacy in community populations. The role of the pharmacist in health literacy is also discussed.
Health literacy describes the skills that enable individuals to obtain, understand and use information to make decisions and take actions that have an impact on health. Several countries now have well established national strategies and plans to improve health literacy through programs to improve the skills of patients and the public, and service changes to reduce the literacy demands on patients and the public.

This webinar will present selected findings from a recent FIP survey on the regulation of the distribution of medicines and pharmacists’ role in supporting responsible self-care. It will also focus on the role of pharmacies in relation to the use of generics, as well as alternative and complementary medicines.

This event will showcase current self-care delivery in community pharmacy across the globe and explore how future delivery could look. People centred care is at the heart of self-care and so this is an important area to explore including the associated communication skills. Strategies to build trust and rapport is vital to self-care will also be discussed. This topic is important because pharmacy teams are increasingly supporting patients with self-care.

This webinar will focus on the the role of community of pharmacists in weight management and obesity prevention, screening, referral and management, pharmacy-led weight management approaches and the intergenerational correlations in hypercholesterolemia and obesity. In addition, we will also present selected aspects from the FIP handbook on nutrition and weight management for pharmacists, to be launched that day.

This event will showcase the four pillars of the FIP Community Pharmacy Section’s Vision – review, prescribe, dispense, administer. It will also signpost how to empower patients, pharmacists, healthcare professionals about the value of selfcare and the importance of appropriate management for selecting medicines for self-care.

This webinar will present selected findings from a recent FIP survey on community pharmacy models and self-care. It will provide an overview of trends affecting community pharmacies’ sustainability, namely the impact of players such as Amazon or the evolution of remuneration models for professional services. It will also provide a snapshot of community pharmacy in China.

This event will set the scene for FIP’s self-care digital events programme. It will describe what the programme consists of and the main learning outcomes. This topic is important because pharmacy teams are increasingly supporting patients with self-care. The event will also describe what self-care involves, its benefits and the future of self-care. There will be a panel discussion about how pharmacy can shape the future of self-care.

Online delivery of goods became very common nowadays, and even increased during COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns. The way consumers obtain medicines, as special type of goods, is also changing. In some countries, buying medicines online is becoming common practice, because buyers are preferring to order their medicines through a click of a button rather than taking a trip to a pharmacy or a drug store. However, online customers may have difficulty knowing whether an Internet pharmacy is a legitimate operation, without the same confidence as they would have had in the neighborhood pharmacy. What are the practices in place to make sure that the online patient or customer can rely that they will receive the medicine they need? What are the advantages and disadvantages to accessing medicines on-line from patients, as well as from pharmacists’ point of view? Since medicines are regulated products and the need for consideration of ethical issues in access to medicines is important, the online pharmacy services have both advantages and disadvantages. What are the medicines patients are allowed to receive online in different countries? What is the scope of online pharmaceutical services vis-à-vis medicine procurement, distribution, online prescriptions, internet drug information, pharmaceutical care services, etc.?

The aim of this event is to describe an evidence-based approach to self-care of mild COVID-19 symptoms