What HOPE participants have taught us about personalised care
Personalised care starts with what matters to each person, giving people choice and control over how their care is planned and delivered. Supported self-management puts this into practice by building the knowledge, skills and confidence (also known as activation) people need to manage their health and wellbeing in everyday life.
At Hope 4 The Community, we recently reviewed 4,000 end-of-course questionnaires and 1,000 pieces of session feedback from digital Hope Programme courses delivered across different long-term conditions, caring roles and communities.
The findings showed us that personalised care does not always require completely different support for every person. Participants consistently value the same core elements — trusted information, practical tools, self-compassion and connection with others — but need the freedom to use them in ways that fit their own lives.
Practical support people can use
HOPE stands for Help Overcome Problems Effectively. The Hope Programme is an evidence-based supported self-management programme for people living with long-term conditions and carers. Available digitally or in person, it offers group-facilitated or self-guided learning. The content and platform have been co-designed with people with lived experience, clinicians and researchers.
In their feedback, participants described taking what they learned and using it in everyday life: pacing themselves, managing stress and difficult feelings, preparing for healthcare appointments, communicating more confidently, recognising their strengths and setting manageable goals.
From the end-of-course questionnaires:
89% said they gained new knowledge or skills
86% said they applied what they learned
71% said they shared their learning with others
These findings show that participants did more than gain knowledge. Most said they had applied what they learned, and many had shared it with others. The Hope Programme gives people opportunities to practise different strategies, consider what works for them and use that learning in everyday life. Combining knowledge with practice is central to successful self-management.
Core elements, personally applied
Although the programmes provide consistent core elements, participants valued and used them in different ways.
For one person, goal-setting meant protecting time for something enjoyable. For another, it meant pacing essential activities or preparing for an appointment. Some people were not ready to set goals during the course.
This variation could also be seen across the programme activities. Gratitude was rated as useful by 93% of respondents, hopes for the future by 91%, goal-setting by 89% and live mindfulness by 74%.
The overall ratings were positive, but they also show that no activity will suit everybody. Some people found mindfulness calming and helpful for sleep or difficult feelings. Others found some exercises frustrating, stressful or simply not right for them.
One participant explained:
“Some of the content was not for me, which is fine, it's optional, but there are lots of topics, info, advice and suggestions to suit all sorts.”
That is personalised care in action: a consistent, evidence-based offer with enough choice and flexibility for people to decide what is relevant, what they want to try and what they need to adapt or leave for later.
Self-compassion and connection matter
Many participants described becoming less self-critical and kinder to themselves. They spoke about resting without guilt, pacing themselves and recognising the pressure they placed on themselves.
One participant wrote:
“The Hope Programme has helped me understand my symptoms a little better. I now have a few tools to manage them which feels like it’s taken a bit of pressure off me to recover quickly. I am more forgiving towards myself. Still incredibly frustrated, but more forgiving.”
This is not about pretending that everything is positive. It is about helping people respond to difficult circumstances with greater understanding and practical ways to manage them.
Participants also valued learning from other people with similar experiences:
“Knowing I wasn’t alone. Hearing others express similar fear, frustrations and challenges. But also hearing ideas for approaches and solutions. A very supportive community.”
This has relevance for neighbourhood health. Community organisations and peer networks can provide practical support, shared experience and continuing connection alongside clinical services.
People also want to engage in different ways. Some value group discussions, while others prefer to read what people have shared without feeling pressured to respond. Some want live or face-to-face contact; others need the flexibility of digital support.
From what matters to practical action
What our participants have taught us is that the same programme can support people in different ways.
That is why, on the Hope Programme, we provide common, evidence-based support strategies while recognising that people live with different symptoms, responsibilities, resources and priorities. People have choice and control over how they use that support and what works for them. Some people will need condition-specific information or additional support. Others will benefit from being able to progress at their own pace, revisit material or leave out activities that are not useful to them.
We can provide a common set of evidence-based support strategies while making space for people’s different symptoms, responsibilities, resources and priorities. Asking “What matters to you?” is an essential starting point. Personalised care becomes meaningful when people also have access to practical support to act on what matters: knowledge they can trust, skills they can use, confidence to make changes and the flexibility to find their own way forward.