Better Conversation: A guide to health coaching

Carter A |   | The Health Coaching Coalition | Sep 2016

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This resource guide was developed as part of the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme, which aims to increase the pace of take-up of innovations across the NHS.

The guide provides organisations and individuals with a range of ideas on how health coaching can be adopted by clinicians as well as by lay coaches. Health coaching is roughly defined as a patient-centred approach to help patients gain the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to become active participants in their care and in their behaviour change towards health goals - though multiple definitions are offered in the guide, including a consensus definition from 284 research studies. The resource guide explains how health coaching can encourage better conversations which lead to better health.

Chapters six and seven are authored by IES principal research fellow, Alison Carter. Chapter six considers how organisations can embed health coaching in service provision, whilst chapter seven outlines how outcomes from health coaching can be evaluated.