self care resources?

[Margo Harris]

What a great question.  I hope you will compile the suggestions you get and
share back.

I'd offer three, probably in priority order.
1.  Healthwise Handbook: A Self-Care Manual for You.  Available from
Healthwise, Inc., 373 W. Fort St, P O Box 1989, Boise, ID 83701, Phone:
208/345-1161.  I'm biased.  I attended the Healthwise Demand Mangement
Training several years ago, and I was impressed with the book and the
workshop.  Group Health and Kaiser have also adopted this book; so I'm not
the only one interested.  It comes in two versions, the general one and a
version targed for older adults called Healthwise for Life.
	I especially like the large print, the diagrams, and the superior
cross-referencing.  If you take respiratory disease as an example, you
could look in the index for lung, respiratory, air, breathing and several
other words and get to the right section of the book.  It's a "just what I
need" type of publication, i.e. not too much information, easy to find,
easy to use.  You get basic information, prevention tips, home treatment,
and when to call a health professional.  ISBN: 1-877930-09-1

2.  The Carewise Guide: Self-Care from Head to Toe.  This national health
information award winner is available from Acamedica Press, a division of
Carewise, Inc. (formerly called Employee Managed Care Corporation) in
Seattle, phone 800/755-2200.  This one is also a "just what I need" type of
presentation, with more of an "algorithmic" look.  Again, basic language,
not too much information, okay graphics.  Each topic has an good "Know What
to Do" section, and your choices go from emergency assistance to emergency
first aid to call doctor now to call doctor to apply self-care.  In a
number of (appropriate) places, the writers inject a sense of humor, which
I really liked.  ISBN: 1-886444-01-3 

3.  Take Care of Yourself: Your Personal Guide to Self-Care and Preventing
Illness.  This is a long standing self-care guide, and I'm sure others will
suggest it.  For me it's more complex and more challenging to use than the
other two.  While I haven't tested it or seen tests, I suspect it is also
written at higher literacy level than the other two.  I suspect the other
two benefited from Donald Vickery and James Fries ground breaking work. The
edition I have is available from Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.,
ISBN 0-201-51791-4.

Hope that helps.  It would be interesting to learn what book you select and
what helped you make that choice.  Margo

Margo Harris
Harris Training & Consulting Services, Inc.
Email:  htcs at halcyon.com
Internet:  http://www.htcs.com/