Xarxa patient study group at Micof headquarters.
The most renowned official college of pharmacists in Valencia (Micof) has provided training in collaboration with the Grünenthal Pharma laboratory to improve the quality of life of people with chronic pain. A course that is part of the Xarxa patient education program whose main goal is to promote self-care among chronic patients, in this particular case, people suffering from a health problem that covers 20% of the population.
To do this, the College addressed various topics of interest to people with chronic pain during three two-hour face-to-face sessions, always counting on the active participation of patients and the exchange of experience between them. Among the course content delivered in June by Dr. Elisa Gallach and Dr. Jorge Yuste were talks about pain and living with it; the relationship between a healthcare professional and a patient; pharmacological treatment of pain; personal care (nutrition, exercise…); physical health and psycho-emotional strategies; and tools for self-management of pain.
Candela Almenar, Member of Institutional Relations and CSR Micof, is very pleased with the first course for people with chronic pain. “We are very pleased with the involvement of the people who attended this first training, as well as the atmosphere of learning and empathy that prevailed throughout all three trainings,” he explained. “The main goal of such courses is nothing less than improving the quality of life of patients, and we believe that thanks to the great interest of participants in learning and the hard work of training trainers, this was achieved. When both sides want, everything is much easier; and that is precisely the mission of Xarxa patients: to make the daily lives of patients easier,” said Almenar.
Xarxa Patients, a program for patients and for patients
Xarxa Patients is a Micof project that consists of a free educational program aimed at empowering chronic patients and providing them with self-care resources. This is done through workshops in which the protagonists are people with a specific pathology, always accompanied by professionals who are experts in the disease, with the aim of creating relationships between equals that promote commitment and improve the quality of life.
So far, since launching in early 2022, Xarxa Pacients has delivered a total of thirteen courses, covering five different pathologies: diabetes (type 1 and 2), kidney disease, fibromyalgia, cancer, and chronic pain. The intention is to continue to educate patients, as well as their family members and caregivers who deal with disease on a daily basis (active patients), on these pathologies, while expanding the number of diseases within the range of education offered by Xarxa patients.
“Xarxa Patients is a patient and patient education program that is constantly expanding, and we are working to ensure that it remains that way and is able to help as many people with various pathologies as possible,” said Candela Almenar. “At MICOF, as healthcare professionals and pharmacists, we work with people who suffer from chronic diseases every day and visit their pharmacy regularly to pick up medicines, so we know the importance of adherence to treatment and self-care in such cases. For this reason, we are promoting Xarxa patients who have already been able to help more than 600 patients in just a year and a half, and we will continue to work for even more,” concluded a member of the department of institutional relations and CSR Micof.