Self-Management Education and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
for Patients with COPD

Self-management and pulmonary rehabilitation counseling can still be done remotely by telephone or via telehealth technologies in some institutions. However, this does not mean that the patient should remain inactive during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic, nor that they should not continue to implement their self-management strategies at home.

Patients should continue to:

1. Adhere to their treatment plan
   (regular medication and action plan (CTS COPD Action Plan) with additional treatment in the event of an exacerbation); and
2. Practice a healthy lifestyle including remaining physically active
   (for example: daily walks while practicing physical distancing of 2 meters from others, and using functional resistance exercises for strength training at home).

To encourage self-management education, patients can be invited to sign up for free on the livingwellwithcopd website to access an online learning course. Once the patient creates an account, they can click on the “Learning Activities” tab located on the top right corner and click on the subsection called “Start here: Online learning course to live better with my COPD”, which offers a series of eight videos that cover all the comprehensive aspects of the “Living Well with COPD” program. This online course and all the program materials are available in English and French.

There are a number of online resources available for healthcare professionals to guide patients to keep active at home, and to restart their exercise program should they have stopped. These tools and resources are coming from the Canadian Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program (CPRP) that can be found on the livingwellwithcopd website. The HCP needs to create an account as a healthcare professional and once logged in, click on the “Rehabilitation” tab to access the resources.