RESIDENTS in Rossendale, Pendle and Ribble Valley with long-term health problems are being given the opportunity to manage their condition better as part of a self-help project.

A series of free six-week Expert Patients Programme courses is being run by East Lancashire Primary Care Trust in Brierfield, Clitheroe and Haslingden.

The courses people with long-term conditions such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease, arthritis, skin conditions and back pain.

The next Pendle course begins on the morning of Tuesday, September 25 in Brierfield Bridge Club, at the junction of King Street and Clitheroe Road, near the railway level crossing and Brierfield Railway Station.

Rossendale residents can enlist for the afternoon course which kicks off at the Mary Hindle Centre in Haslingden during the afternoon of Monday, September 24.

The Ribble Valley course starts on the evening of Tuesday, September 18t at Clitheroe's Community Hospital.

The aim of the course is for people to share the expertise that they have built up from living with a chronic health problem.

Topics include how to manage pain and combat depression and how to understand different medications and treatments.