The Staying Well Expert Patients Programme (EPP) is a ‘chronic disease self-management course’ (CDSMC), a new government initiative to help people living with long term conditions maintain their health and improve their quality of life through a self management course led by someone else with a long term health condition.

Self management programmes have been running in the USA since the 1970s and came to this country in 1994. Over this time a substantial body of clinical research and experiential feedback has built up testifying to its efficiency.
The primary aim is not to impart medical information but to facilitate the development of self management skills, such as problem solving and goal setting.
The course has been designed to help people with a chronic or long-term illness regain as much control over their physical and emotional well-being as possible. It complements existing health care programmes and treatments, empowering participants to be more informed and better able to develop partnerships with their medical practitioners.