This site contains information for health providers as well as individuals who are living with a chronic disease and the families and care-givers who support them.
Patients and Families: includes information for those living with chronic illness, including general medical information, resources and information on specific diseases.
Practitioners: includes information on improving clinical management of chronic diseases.
Success Stories: read about real people living well with a chronic illness.
Reports and Research: latest developments in chronic disease prevention and management in NB, Canada and the world.
What is Chronic Disease?
Chronic diseases are prolonged conditions that generally cannot be prevented by vaccines or cured completely. Many chronic diseases develop slowly over time sometimes because of poor health behaviors such as smoking or inactivity. Diabetes, arthritis, depression, asthma, congestive heart failure are examples of chronic diseases. Approximately * 77% of New Brunswickers reported having been diagnosed with one or more chronic diseases (*CCHS Cycle 3.1, 2005).
Chronic conditions share fundamental themes: they carry-on and require some level of health care management across time. In addition, chronic conditions have some concerning features:
- Chronic conditions are increasing throughout the world
- Chronic conditions seriously challenge current health care systems and test our ability to meet the long-term health needs
Chronic diseases are among the most common and costly health problems facing New Brunswickers and Canadians in general.
Chronic diseases can be associated with reduced quality of life and/or functional disability and can have a profound effect on the physical, emotional and mental well-being of those afflicted often making it difficult to maintain daily routines and personal relationships. Many chronic conditions may be controllable and deterioration in health can be minimized by good care, community support and individual choices made on a daily basis.
What is Chronic Disease Prevention and Management?
Chronic disease prevention and management is an approach to health care that emphasizes helping individuals maintain independence and stay as healthy as possible through prevention, early detection, and management of chronic conditions. The system to prevent and/or manage chronic diseases may be best understood as a continuum of care. This care continuum ranges from prevention strategies directed at minimizing or eliminating future chronic illnesses with initiatives like smoking cessation, healthy eating and physical activity programs to actual health care delivery where patients are encouraged to take an active role in their own care and health care providers are supported with the necessary resources and expertise to better assist their patients in managing their illness.
In New Brunswick, chronic disease prevention and management involves many health professionals and administrators within all sectors of the health and wellness systems. All sectors support health service delivery to patients living with long-term illness and assist them and their families with self-management and empowerment strategies to improve their daily quality of life.