Building Competency in Diabetes Education THE ESSENTIALS

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SELF-MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

A trend that is seen throughout our discussion of SME is that the effects of education are not sustained unless they are repeated and reinforced (61,89,96,108,109). From the earliest rendition of the CCM, ‘support’ has played an integral part in the sustainability of health behaviours. Wagner originally defined self-management as “behaviorally sophisticated self-management support that gives priority to developing an individual’s confidence and skills so that they can be the ultimate manager of their condition” (6). Since the original model focused on population rather than individual education, this type of support is often misinterpreted and used to refer only to peer-support education programs or the use of interactive technology.

Diabetes self-management support is defined as strategies that augment an individual’s ability to self-manage their diabetes (2).

By using the framework of the CCM, we can understand that support can be experienced through many different channels, i.e. appointment reminder systems, text messaging and interactive web-based tools. Support for/from individuals, the community and the government are all complimentary in directing energy towards the goal of improved health status and effective self-management.

SMS includes activities that support the implementation and maintenance of behaviours for ongoing diabetes self-management. SMS also refers to policies and people that support self management behaviours across the lifespan, not necessarily specific to educational processes (2).

To emphasize that support for self-management is considered an essential adjunct to any initial educational intervention, the new 2018 Guidelines has changed the 2013 Guideline chapter name from “Self-Management Education” to “Self-Management Education and Support”.