MyStory: Personal Health Inventory
In this podcast, Dr. Tracy Gaudet discusses how the PHI is used to benefit everyone, by helping provide greater focus on what matters most in our lives.
What really matters to you in your life?
The MyStory: Personal Health Inventory (PHI) is a valuable first step toward helping you and your health care team start a conversation and begin to build a personalized health plan.
The PHI is self-assessment tool to help people explore areas of their life. It opens with a question — What really matters to you? — that is at the heart of patient centered care.
But to get healthy, and to be the best you can be, you need to consider several more questions:
- Are you getting enough sleep at night to refresh your body and mind?
- Are you eating foods and beverages that will nourish and fuel you?
- Are you surrounding yourself with people you love and care about?
- Do you have as much energy and flexibility as you could have with more exercise?
- Are you finding opportunities to learn and grow?
The PHI will help you explore these areas in life that affect your health — your sleep, diet, relationships, work environment, and more. It will help you assess the eight components of self-care, recognized by the World Health Organization to affect health outcomes. And it will help you pinpoint areas to work on.
Your health care team will help connect you with resources and support systems in these key areas as a part of your personalized health plan.
To start a conversation with your health care team: Explore the PHI, print it out, and bring it to your next VA appointment. If you prefer a shorter version of this self-assessment tool, please have a look at the PHI Short Version and also the PHI Wallet Card.
