About Know Your Own Health
Background and experience
For more than fifteen years, Know Your Own Health (KYOH) has worked at the intersection of health policy, health research, clinical practice and patients with lived experience.
Established in 2010 by leaders with 14 years’ experience of working with the NHS and Department of Health on behaviour change, KYOH was created with a clear purpose: to support people living with long-term conditions to strengthen their capacity to manage their health and wellbeing, and reduce unnecessary reliance on clinical services.
Initially focused on supporting clinical pain management services through the provision of online resources and the collection of patient activation outcomes data, KYOH’s work evolved into supporting one-to-one coaching using a coaching model informed by the Health Foundation’s Co-Creating Health Self-Management Programme, delivered primarily through NHS Primary Care.
Coaching was initially delivered as peer-to-peer support by people with lived experience of managing long term conditions, later becoming delivered by dedicated health coaches trained in health coaching as an intervention to support self-management and increase patient activation for people managing one or more long-term conditions.
Throughout this journey, KYOH has continued to collect and report on outcomes data, with a focus on understanding what works and why.
Programme Lead: Kate Henry
The team is led by Kate Henry, whose work supporting coaches and collecting patient outcomes data led to the development and definition of the StACC model - an approach aimed at intentionally increasing patient activation as a way of improving people’s knowledge, skills and confidence to self-manage effectively.
Since 2018, Kate has contributed to the introduction of the Health and Wellbeing Coach role with NHS England and to the associated framework and accredited training standards. She has also worked with co-authors at Imperial College London to formally evaluate outcomes from the StACC coaching model, and has continued to work with two London-based PCNs to support Health and Wellbeing Coaches, continue outcomes data collection, and adapt the data platform for independent use by coaches across NHS, statutory and community services.
At the same time, Kate delivers Health Coaching skills training and supervision in line with the NHS Personalised Care agenda, using the StACC approach.
Kate holds a degree in Economics and Social Policy and is currently writing a book and manual on the StACC model to enable wider access to the approach and to help promote interventions aimed at increasing activation and supported self-management.
Lead Developer: Chris Kennish
Chris Kennish has worked with Kate since KYOH was established in 2010 to develop its digital platform. His work includes front-end websites, e-learning programmes, online self-management resources, and the caseload management and data collection platform that has been created to support evaluation of coaching approaches used in the NHS and public sector services.
Co-Trainers / Supervisors: Helen Furlong, Sonja Turner, Sarah Mackintosh, Maria Furtek
Helen, Sonja and Sarah have worked with KYOH for the past decade, having joined the NHS pilot service (2015–2018) on which the formal evaluation of the StACC model was based. They trained as trainers of KYOH’s PCI-accredited health coaching programmes in 2019 and were joined by Maria in 2023.
Helen Furlong
Helen has a background in Social Housing at senior management level and also has extensive experience working with Hard to Reach Communities and as an executive coach as well as her work as a Health and Wellbeing Coach and Trainer in the NHS and other public sector services.
Sonja Turner
Sonja started working as a Coach and Holistic Therapist in 2008. Since 2014, she has been coaching students in a secondary school academy alongside her work with Know Your Own Health as a Health and Wellbeing Coach and Trainer in the NHS and other public sector services..
Sarah Mackintosh
Sarah has a background as a Registered Mental Health Nurse alongside her coaching role. As well as delivering PCI-accredited Health and Wellbeing Coaching and training in the NHS and public sector services, Sarah holds ICF PCC credentials and a Human Resource Diploma.
Maria Furtek
Maria has worked as an Integrated NLP Hypnotherapist, Trainer and Coach, since 1999. She continues to work as a therapist in private practice, alongside her work as a Health and Wellbeing Coach, Supervisor and Trainer in the NHS and other public services.