Neura Health’s membership is truly one-of-a-kind in how comprehensive and personalized it is. Across those experiencing chronic neurological conditions, many patients benefit from specific medications, while others may require lifestyle modifications, and the majority will try some combination of both.

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But lifestyle changes are often much easier said than done. How does one go about actually implementing a lifestyle change? This is where a personalized care coach can make a huge difference. A care coach is a wellness professional who regularly meets with a patient to create an action plan and hold the patient accountable to it.

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Coaching specific to neurological conditions
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For patients with neurological conditions, coaches are specifically trained to provide support in the areas that commonly exacerbate and/or contribute to symptoms, episodes or attacks: diet, sleep, stress, and limited mobility. After initially meeting with your dedicated board-certified neurologist, you will be assigned a care coach who is best suited to meet your needs. The coach will meet with you to set specific goals in the lifestyle area(s) that most impacts your condition. After that initial coaching consultation, you will meet with your coach on a twice-monthly basis for a 30 minute session to check in on how you are progressing towards your goal.

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Proven results
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In a 2018 review of 11 controlled trials investigating the efficacy of care coaching, 82 percent of trials found that patients utilizing coaches had significant improvements across blood pressure, weight, and quality of dietary intake.  Neura patients have continuously left 5 out of 5-stars feedback on their care coaching visits. Further, most of our patients have built strong emotional bonds with their coaches, reporting that for the first time in their chronic care journey, they feel fully understood and cared for by this important care team member.

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Care concierge versus care coach
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A key part of your Neura membership is unlimited access to a dedicated care team: a board-certified neurologist, a care coach, and a concierge. So what is the difference between a care coach and a concierge?

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Concierges help patients with all the administrative challenges of managing their chronic condition, since the last chore a neurology patient needs is the stress of dealing with the existing healthcare system. Concierges can help find and submit referrals, coordinate prescriptions with pharmacies, file paperwork for prior authorizations, share relevant health information between doctors (faxing lab orders, for example), and they generally serve as the patient’s advocate through the existing system.

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Care coaches, on the other hand, offer support, education, accountability, and a listening ear. Coaches serve as an extension of the neurologist’s care; they align internally with our doctors and help scale their care through more frequent touchpoints with the patient.

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Areas of coaching support
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All Neura coaches offer general support in neurological conditions and the patient’s wider approach to their overall health. They can use data from coaching check-ins or the patient’s tracker to uncover a holistic understanding of the triggers that may be contributing to your more frequent and/or severe symptoms. Further, if you are trying a new medication that isn’t working for you or causing too many side effects, coaches can help you navigate staying in communication with your medical team to get the support you need. Our coaches are equipped and ready to support you in areas such as:
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• Diet and hydration - Coaches are trained to support the patient in developing healthy eating and hydration habits that support a deeper understanding of the patient’s potential triggers. From understanding basic elimination diets to increasing daily water intake, coaches are equipped to help the patient focus on how impactful food and beverages may be on their health. With their coach, patients are empowered to explore a variety of food and hydration related areas such as general eating patterns, daily routines involving food, understanding hydration, and general healthy dietary changes.  
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• Exercise - Coaches are trained to support the patient in implementing and navigating new movement routines. Patients may be assigned helpful exercises for the head, neck, and body within the Neura app by their provider and may require additional support implementing these recommendations. Coaches can also support patients in their larger exercise goals through brainstorming, support, motivation, and accountability.

• Stress reduction - Coaches are trained to support patients in their skill building to reduce and cope with everyday stressors. Common topics include developing mindful tools such as simple meditation, breathing, reflective exercises, or developing hobbies and activities that help put patients into “flow.” Our coaches can assist the patient in building out their toolkit to support care needs as they shift over time.
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• Sleep hygiene -  Our coaches are trained in supportive methods for addressing sleep hygiene and improving overall sleep quality. They support the patient in developing their unique routines or tools that will drive healthy and consistent sleep patterns.
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• General health and wellness - All Neura coaches are NBC-HWC certified and equipped to meet each and every patient exactly where they are. While the topics above are some of our more commonly explored areas, this is not an exhaustive list and our coaches can support many other areas of general health and wellness.
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What Coaches Cannot Do
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• Provide guidance on medication, supplements, or other treatments prescribed by your provider. They can clarify instructions given within your visit notes, but all questions about changing medications, dosages, timing, etc. will need to be routed to the medical team.
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• Prescribe dietary changes/diet plans. Specific dietary plans would need to be prescribed by a medical professional or registered dietician. Your coach can help you navigate and implement dietary plans, they just cannot prescribe or recommend a specific plan.
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• Provide mental health support. While coaches can listen, and inevitably tough emotions will likely come up in sessions, they cannot help you unpack or process these deeper emotions and the history behind them. We encourage all patients to have a well rounded care team that includes a mental health provider (therapist, psychiatrist, or psychologist).
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Format of Neura’s coaching program
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Within Neura, coaching takes two main forms:
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• Regular video visits - sessions typically happen biweekly (up to 2 per calendar month) with one’s care coach. During your session you can expect to explore various topics related to your needs, discuss relevant patient education, and if appropriate, set SMART goals that help support your desired health outcomes.
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• Care plan - this is an in-app list of follow up action items that a neurologist assigns to the patient. This list is customized based on patient needs, and changes dynamically as the patient completes action items such as reading relevant content, logging medication, performing helpful exercises, and more.

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Recognizing how a care coach might help you with your condition? Start your Neura membership and meet your dedicated care coach as soon as today!