Enabling individuals to control their own health and health care decisions. “Empowerment” means granting power or authority; it also means enablement. Granting authority may mean simply giving permission, but enablement may also require the provision of information not ordinarily available and/or additional education. “Patient empowerment” requires using empowerment in both senses.
At a personal level, the engagement of individuals in decisions about their health and about the diagnosis, treatment and after-care of their illness, injuries and other disorders. At a public level, the engagement of all members of the public in the planning, provision and performance of their health-care services. Traditionally, at both personal and public levels, the patient has generally been regarded as naturally subordinate to the politicians and managers who plan and run the health-care system(s), and to health professionals and medical institutions who provide personal health care. The public and patients are increasingly unwilling to accept this traditional model and are asserting themselves, for example through patient help groups, complaints, litigation and local political action with the aim of securing changes in how health care is organized and a much greater say in their own care.