About the health plan

The health plan is an agreement between the patient, often their relatives, and healthcare, rehabilitation or social care professionals. It can encompass what will happen in the next few hours up to what will take place further ahead in the future. Although it is a collective document, the health plan is primarily for the benefit of the patient. 

A health plan can be written in various ways, but it should contain four important areas: the patient’s own goals, what the patient needs to do to achieve them, what resources the patient has themselves and what support the patient needs. In a bit more detail, a health plan could have the following headings:

1. My goal 

This is what I would like, want to be able to, want to do, or want to feel – both in the short and long term.

2. What I have to do 

This is what I have to do to reach my goal – how and when I will do it.

3. My own resources 

These are the abilities, qualities and resources I have to help me.

4. The support I need 

This is the support I need – who is able to help me and when.

The health plan is to be seen as a living document that is updated. The situation and the circumstances may change, or perhaps the goals are changed. The most effective are digital health plans that professionals and patients can follow up and update in real time. If it is not possible to use digital health plans, each unit must find its own way of working with the health plan so that it works well for them and their patients. It may be as simple as a document that is filled in together with the patient, who is given a printed copy of it.

The goal is always to make the patient as active in their own care as possible so that they can live a healthier life.