General health
Prepare for appointments, offer support without taking over, protect privacy and recognise when a question needs a clinician.
Read the general health guideHealth and wellbeing
Health conversations belong to the person
Families and friends can offer company and practical help. Medical decisions and individual guidance belong with the person and their clinician.
Weight, movement and exercise
Talk about activity without shame, respect changing capacity and make shared routines easier to choose or decline.
Read the movement guideReproduction and pregnancy
Handle private news, questions, appointments, changing family roles and loss with care and without assumptions.
Read the pregnancy guideRest, recovery and physical strain
Notice the physical work of caring for a partner, parent, child or friend and prepare to discuss strain with a doctor.
Read the caring and recovery guideUse health information as a starting point
General information can help you organise questions. It cannot assess symptoms, personal risk, medication, pregnancy or treatment choices. Speak with an appropriate clinician who can consider the actual circumstances.
Before a conversation, decide whose decision it is. The person receiving care should usually choose what is shared and who attends. A relative can offer to listen, take notes or handle a practical task without becoming the manager of another adult's body.
The public NHS Live Well section brings together broad everyday health topics, and the World Health Organization's physical activity section provides general public-health context. These links are for background, not individual advice.
Uncertainty needs careful language
Family and friends may want to reassure, search for an explanation or share someone else's experience. It is more honest to acknowledge what is not known. Avoid promising an outcome, comparing conditions or telling someone that worry itself is the problem.
If there may be an immediate medical or safety emergency, use the appropriate local emergency service. Do not wait for a website to resolve uncertainty about urgent help. When the right level of care is unclear, seek direction from a qualified local health service.