A patient built framework to ensure Personalised Care and Prevent the Flare
Efficient questioning criteria’s - recognising potential hidden symptoms & mental health crisis.
Empowering service user from diagnosis, recognising fears and when preventative intervention may be appropriate.
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A diverse group of Expert Patients from across the Autoimmune community who have co-produced a framework of communication iprovement which would've have impacted our understanding and minimised the extra anxieties which increase flare.
It will prevent escalation of disease, save time & re-admission & encourage patient confidence - therefore minimising the inevitable anxieties around meds, procedures & personal/work life.
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Using personal experience & insight we have created methods to ensure the HCP & Patient time is efficient & productive. Sharing effective questioning criteria, removing stigma & shame & highlighting common, hidden flags - therefore preventing escalation, disease progression & mental health crisis.
Saving precious time, supporting self management & building trust - using a gentle framework to encourage honesty around symptom severity & move faster to Personalised Care & pathways.
Too often patients simply cant articulate symptoms & are already suffering anxiety & fear around procedures.
Our framework enables HCP’s to get accurate, rapid symptoms & Prevent the Flare.
This has been designed through lived experience & avoidable circumstance - it works.
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NIHR, Professional Standards of Health Association, IMROC, Cambridge, Bath & Nottingham Universities, Primary care trusts, research companies & charities.
The framework for Prevent the Flare with Care has been researched and will provide measurable results for both patients and HCP's.
Joanna Oliver
Programme Creator & Founder
Joanna is the programme creator and founder of Colon Coach Advocacy. She has over 25 years’ lived experience of inflammatory bowel disease, including 18 years of ongoing biologic therapy, Crohn’s disease, arthritis and multiple related autoimmune conditions.
Despite undergoing many surgeries including panproctocolectomy surgery, the disease returned — highlighting the ongoing realities of IBD beyond surgical intervention.
In response to the absence of structured peer support within care pathways, Joanna established Colon Coach to advocate for others navigating diagnosis, treatment, and long-term disease management.
Alongside extensive lived experience, Joanna has trained in CBT counselling, preventative care, DWP policy, anxiety and depression in chronic illness, nutrition, and recovery-based approaches, and holds a Level 4 Senior NHS Peer Leader qualification.
Through years of research, long hospital admissions, and the delivery of free, anonymous advocacy, Joanna has built a diverse network of resilient peer advocates. This team reflects a wide range of perspectives, recognising that factors such as gender, age, religion, and identity can significantly shape the experience of IBD. Inclusion and equality are central to the framework.
These diseases effect every part of life, work, home, finances and inevitably have a significant impact on mental health - causing anxiety - a known aggravating factor for flares.
Every individual deserves privacy & the ability to access legitimate information anonymously and for free. Too often escalation is caused by shame.
This work also responds to the recognised risks of unmoderated social media forums. The Prevent the Flare with Care framework is built on the principle that IBD care must be personalised, informed, and supported — recognising that gut health is as individual as DNA.
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