About Us
Center for Empowering Patients and Communities
CEmPaC is a non-political, non-profit network run as a not for profit on a voluntary basis. Our intention is to promote and develop the empowerment of patients and health professionals, and inform policymakers on the benefits of patients and health professionals working in partnership to improve health and healthcare.
All of our resource materials are free of charge. We also offer tailored training packages for patients and health professionals, an online resource of the evidence of impact of patient empowerment, and an ongoing series of webinars and a discussion forum.
We actively collaborate with partners to showcase their work, so if you would like us to include work that you are part of please do get in touch.
Who We Are
CEmPaC is hosted by the European Health Futures Forum (EHFF) and overseen by its Director Dr David Somekh. It is funded for three years by the Robert Bosch Foundation. Its Co-Directors are:
Jim Phillips
Jim Phillips has over thirty years’ experience in the design, development and implementation of approaches that enable empowerment. After training as a psychotherapist he focused on supporting people with long-term conditions to manage the impact of a health condition on their daily lives. He led the setup of the NHS Expert Patient Programme, and has worked with health organisations across Europe, the US and Australia. He has been involved in setting up peer support groups, campaigning for better care and advising policy makers on developing person-centred care approaches and has carried a patient case load as a health coach.
His portfolio has covered the implementation of a countywide integrated self-management service in England, and Director of the Quality Institute for Self-Management Education and Training. He has also been involved in the EMPATHiE project, is an Associate Director for the European Health Futures Forum and the European Network on Patient Empowerment (ENOPE), and is Associate Editor for the international journal SelfCare. As well as his voluntary role of Executive Director with CEmPaC, he also works part-time for NHS England in personalised care as well as sitting as expert advisor on a number of advisory boards.
In his spare time he does long distance endurance horse riding.
Contact: jim@cempac.org
David Somekh
Director
in Healthcare between 1999 and 2018. He is one of five Directors of the European Health Futures Forum, started in 2013, now a Charity based in Ireland (www.ehff.eu).
Danni Heath
Marketing Manager
Danni has worked as a marketing, communications and business development expert for the not-for-profit sector for over 17 years. She has been running her own consultancy business for the last 11 years with a particular interest in supporting organisations working with people with long term conditions to manage the impact of a health condition on their daily lives.
She specialises in helping organisations find their voice and communicate their messages clearly in order to maximise social impact.
She is passionate about clear communication and cutting through marketing jargon to provide practical and effective strategies that enable social change.