Diabetes Education After Class | Long-Term Diabetes Education with Diabetes Self-Management Support or DSME

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Diabetes Self-Management Support: What an Ongoing Diabetes Education Program Means to You and Your Patients

By Donna Rice

Diabetes education shouldn’t stop at the office or classroom door. Find out how a new standard for ongoing diabetes education and support will impact you and your patients, and get resources for developing your own long-term diabetes education plans.

By Donna Rice

Diabetes self-management education (DSME) is the most effective strategy for helping individuals cope with a chronic lifelong condition that requires self-management 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. This form of diabetes education provides the nuts and bolts of diabetes management and is an incredible support tool for individuals newly diagnosed with the disease as well as for those that may be dealing with complications.

It is well documented in the literature that DSME is effective in the short term. However, it is also clear that diabetes education and support also must continue well beyond the average 4 to 6 weeks of scheduled DSME class sessions. Because the current reimbursement model and program structure educators use does not allow for this ongoing support and diabetes education, we must find new ways to help individuals plan for the future and develop support plans – a step that is just as critical as medication plans, education plans, or any discharge instructions.

A plan for life
What exactly is diabetes self-management support (DSMS) and how do educators apply this new concept given our limited time spent with individuals? How do we develop a well-thought-out self-management support plan, and how do we communicate it to our patients and their providers? What and where are our resources to help us extend our reach to meet the needs of individuals with diabetes?

DSMS is a new challenge for all educators throughout the US. In the 2008 National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education it states the need for education programs to develop self-management support plans for all individuals. The following standard identifies support as an essential element in discharge planning. Standard 8 states: “A personalized follow-up plan for ongoing self-management support will be developed collaboratively by the participant and instructor. The patient’s outcomes and goals and the plan for ongoing self-management support will be communicated to the referring provider.

The national standards define diabetes self-management support as “the activities to assist the individual with diabetes to implement and sustain the ongoing behaviors needed to manage this illness. The type of support provided can be behavioral, educational, psychological, and clinical.”

>>Next: Read more on assessing support needs.>>