Despite the vast amount of evidence supporting the effectiveness of chronic condition self-management, no generic instrument exists to assess self-management. In light of this, the Partners in Health (PIH) scale was developed and then piloted for acceptability. Forty-six patients completed the PIH pilot scale, with positive feedback from the patients, GPs, and other health professionals in the pilot program. The PIH scale has demonstrated potential to be a reliable and valid measure of chronic condition self-management. A future study is proposed, however, to confirm the findings presented here. The PIH scale may help health professionals to introduce the concept of self-management to their patients/clients, and provides a rapid checklist of areas of self-management that may lead to interventions targeted to the individual. Out of the many terms used in the literature, self-management is the term decided on here to refer to the active involvement of the patient in the management of their chronic medical condition.

The problems and goals approach (P&G) is a therapeutic assessment and intervention used in the behavioural psychotherapy field. P&G is a patient-centred, pragmatic technique in which the patient and health professional determine the patient?s problems and formulate realistic medium term goals based on measurable outcomes. P&G was utilised in the SA HealthPlus first round Coordinated Care Trial in South Australia with intervention patients who had chronic medical conditions. This article presents a case study from SA HealthPlus. The aim of this article is to introduce the practical workings of P&G and provide some observations about this technique.

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