LifepsycholQoL is an easy-to-use, patient-driven system. It enables people to record how their quality of life is affected by a life-threatening or chronic condition and how it may change over time. As well as providing structure and focus for a consultation, completing a lifepsychol at regular intervals can help people with long terms conditions and their health professionals monitor and manage any changes that may have an impact on their quality of life.
The lifepsychol dial is divided into 12 areas and during the registration process it is possible select the 12 areas that you feel are pertinent to your quality of life from a pick list. These include but are not limited to:
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The selection of areas is based on research which indicates there are particular issus that patients frequently discuss when talking about how their illness interferes with their life. This research includes the Lifepsychol survey, details of which can be found by clicking on 'Lifepsychol Survey' above.
The Lifepsychol system is the idea of Dr Neil Bindemann, who has worked in medical communications since 1993 and set up Innervate Ltd in 2001. Inspired by work with people suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, Neil recognised the need to provide a simple way for people living with any form of illness to visually express how their quality of their life is being affected, in order to encourage discussion on how best to support them. He believes that the ultimate aim in healthcare is to deliver a product or service that provides patients with best quality of life possible. Furthermore, by gaining a better understanding of what effects a person's quality of life and how it changes over time, it is his belief that this can help people to engage more effectively the healthcare service.
With the help of various colleagues, we have create a system that not only helps people give a detailed insight into changes in their quality of life, but in the fullness of time it will link users to supporting information to help them with the various challenges they face whilst living with a long term or life-threatening condition.
We believe that, at the very least, it will help and encourage people living with a life-threatening of long-term condition to discuss their quality of life issues with their health professional. After all, as one person who completed the Lifepsychol survey very poignantly remarked, "Don't ever make assumptions about what others may value in their quality of life - ask the!"