Guides
We're hoping to have some step-by-step guides to filling in your Chronic Health & Care Passport soon, including an audio guide with tips and suggestions that you can listen to as you fill it in, pausing whenever you need to. In the meantime, your questions might be answered here, or in our FAQ.
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Please forgive the parts of the site that are still under construction, and remember that it is being created for you by other patients who are wrangling their own chronic illnesses and disabilities, so progress is sometimes slower than we would like.
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Hints & Tips
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Navigating to your most important pages
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While the Contents Page gives you a rough idea where to find the different sections, and each is colour-coded (except in the Minimalist Versions), you might want to make your most important sections simpler to navigate.
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The easiest way to do this is using repositionable sticky index tabs, which you can stagger down the page edge, or along the top. If you use the type which are half clear, then they will not obscure anything on your page.
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If you are registered blind and have filled your MCHCP in with the help of someone else, you might want to consider sticking custom embossed braille stickers over the category titles so that you can find the section you want to show to your healthcare team. Total ID make clear braille stickers that would still allow other people to read the information underneath.
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You could colour in a small tab on the titles/contents page of the B&W versions to make them more accessible without affecting the page's clarity, or use small stickers to differentiate the sections.
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Ideas for the blank Custom Pages
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On these pages you can set your own title as well as your own content. You might decide to make your own check-boxes in true bullet-journal style, make a list, or just supply more information about something that matters to you. Here are a few things we've used the Custom Pages for:
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Likes & Dislikes - What's your favourite music? What do you like to watch on TV? Do you wear your hair up or down? Do you have any phobias? Do you secretly love the feel of wearing socks with sandals? Use the blank pages to let the person reading it know what you would want if you weren't able to tell them.
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Power of Attorney - If someone helps to make decisions on your behalf, be that about your money or your healthcare and living arrangements, then these pages could be a good place to explain who that person is and what they have been nominated to do for you.
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Advance Decision/DNAR - If you have a 'Living Will' or have specific wishes regarding things like CPR (resuscitation) or mechanical ventilation then you might like to explain them in these pages. This can be especially useful if you find it complicated or distressing to discuss but still want your medical team to know. They will still need to formalise any requests with you but it can be a handy way to introduce your wishes.
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Physio Regimen - If you have a specific program of exercises that help you manage your condition then you can set them out step by step in the Custom Pages so that anyone caring for you knows how you like things done.
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Emotional Wellbeing - If you have past traumas that impact your daily living or are exacerbated by periods of stress like being in hospital where you cannot always control your environment, then the Custom Pages offer the opportunity for you to explain further. This might be information that you find triggering to discuss, and which would be easier to convey if you had it written down to show your healthcare team.
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Spiritual Needs - If your faith or culture requires specific adjustments like keeping your hair covered, observing prayers, visits from a faith leader, or fasting then you can use the Custom Pages to give details on exactly what you need and how the people around you can help.
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Treatment Plan - Though MCHCP isn't meant to be a record of ongoing treatment as much as it is a potted-history, you may be undergoing treatment that you want to include in greater detail, such as keeping a record of chemotherapy sessions.
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Health Insurance Information - If you have private healthcare then you could use one of the Custom Pages to add your details.
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The Custom Pages give you the freedom to add whatever you need to MCHCP, and we hope they help you tell your health story more easily.
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How to...
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Customise any Page
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Most of the pages have white text-boxes that have been designed to be as adaptable to your content as possible. If you fill them in in pencil or with the recommended FriXion pens then you can gently erase anything you need to change without it affecting the background pattern.
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If any of the text box titles don't suit your requirements, you can use tippex/white-out (we like the tape/roller versions the best) to obscure our title and write in your own. If the whole box isn't quite what you need then you could cover it with a blank sticky label, or a piece of plain paper stuck in. Larger printable labels can be useful for updating your medication if there's a lot to fit in or it changes regularly.
We want your Chronic Health & Care Passport to reflect your needs, and we know that there won't be a single user whose ideal booklets will be exactly the same as anyone else's. So chop, snip, stick, splatter, and scribble over yours in whatever way makes it the most personal to you!
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If you want a MCHCP with a special background or which displays your organisation's logo or colours then we hope to offer that service in the future. Please email us to let us know what you'd like to see offered and sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know when we open our shop.
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Retrofit the current UK/Eire Edition to suit International Healthcare Settings
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We hope to have a less NHS-based edition soon, but that will require additional research and testing due to the significant differences in healthcare outside of the UK. Using the ideas above, you can amend the 'NHS Number' sections to contain your regional equivalent, and you could use one of the blank Custom Pages to fill out your health insurance or medicare information.
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Store and display your completed booklet
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To keep all the pages protected and together we recommend slipping your MCHCP into a document wallet and attaching it to a clip or carabiner so it can be hung up where you need it, clipped inside a bag, or to the end of a hospital bed. You can also carefully hole-punch the booklets (A5 and A4 versions) to clip into a binder or secure with treasury tags. See our FAQ for more.