A Supportive Care Programme for People With Heart Failure

A Supportive Care Programme for People With Heart Failure

Efficient health care systems for the management of chronic diseases in the community may improve clinical outcomes and simultaneously encourage patients to remain healthy. Supportive care, may contribute to empower heart failure (HF) patients for self- management and providing them with the follow-up and care based on their needs and values through the HF trajectory. To develop the current program an assessment of the support needs of HF patients' will be undertaken and the investigators will take into consideration of their personal preferences, for instance means of communication and way of exercise as part of the intervention. The present study aspires to evaluate the effectiveness of an individualized supportive care management program in terms of the four different components that comprise supportive care in HF. The objectives of this study are to:

1. Determine supportive care needs of HF patients as reported in the literature.
2. Explore Cypriot patients' identified supportive care needs.
3. To develop and test a self-management supportive care programme for HF patients.

Inclusion Criteria

• clinical diagnoses with HF (HFpEF or HFrEF), established by a cardiologist
• New York Heart Association classification stages I-IV
• Diagnosis established for at least 6 months before the start of the intervention period
• Ability to understand, write and read in Greek language

Exclusion Criteria:

• Refuse to take part in the research
• Dementia or other severe mental illness
• Transfer to nursing homes after discharge
• Difficulty in contacting them by a phone call
• Patients with chronic degenerative diseases (Alzheimer, cancer, etc)