Diabetese SELF management

Do you think your patients understand the difference in the medical care of an acute illness versus the medical care of a chronic illness?

I often begin my patient visit with these questions -- What made you decide to come to this visit? What do you hope to learn?

Too often, I will get a response such as "My doctor told me to come." , "I want you to tell me what I can eat."

To me, these responses indicate that the patient is still in an 'acute healthcare model'. These patients believe that if they are 'compliant' with directions, they will be well again. "Just tell me what to do"

So my first challenge is to help them understand that to live well with a chronic illness, the patient must become the expert. Diabetes is not black and white -- it will be a little different for each patient and even a little different on a day to day basis for any patient. I believe the patient must see himself as the owner and star player of the team -- the healthcare professionals are the coaching team that he hires and fires to help him develop the skills needed to be a successful player. In the end, the successful player will be the one who knows the rules of the game, the intricacies of the good game and practices the needed skills every day.

This is the message Jana and I are putting together for the presentation for the August/Sept patient support groups.

If you have additional analogies or ways you move your patients into the SELF management concept, I'd love to hear from you.

Re-inventing diabetes management

http://www.diabetesmine.com/designcontest

I don't really think of myself as a creative individual, but this contest has me thinking. What makes health promotion easy? What makes goal setting, learning new skills, marching to a different drummer --easy?

I haven't found it yet. I'm sure it is different strokes for different folks. It's fun to look at last year's entries. I'd love to come up with an idea to submit.

I'm thinking about it.

Mark April 18th on your calendar

Registration must be in by April 11 for the KCRADE Spring Conference. I hope you will be able to join us. Check the website for details...
www.kcrade.org