The American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) recognizes a need for a health care model that improves outcomes for people with diabetes—one that shifts the focus from a system that handles acute problems to a prevention-based system aimed at avoiding long-term problems, including diabetes complications.
A collaborative process focused on 7 self-care behaviors
An important part of the chronic care model is diabetes self-management education (DSME), a collaborative process in which people with (or at risk of) diabetes gain the knowledge and skills needed to change their behavior to successfully self-manage the disease and its related conditions.
The AADE has identified 7 key behaviors, known as the AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors™ framework, that lead to better patient self-management of diabetes. As a diabetes educator, you can help people learn about:
- Healthy eating—The effect of food on blood sugar, sources of fat and carbohydrates, effective meal planning, and resources that patients can use to make wise food choices.
- Being active—Developing an activity plan for patients and talking about ways to overcome common barriers to increased physical activity.
- Monitoring—Information on blood sugar, blood pressure, and other diabetes monitoring equipment. Educators can teach proper use of the equipment, how often and when to test, appropriate target ranges, and how to interpret test results.
- Taking medication—How the medicines work, potential side effects, timing and frequency of administration, and what happens if patients don’t take their medication as prescribed.
- Problem solving—Helping patients develop effective coping strategies for the variety of health-related situations that may arise due to diabetes.
- Reducing risks—Teaching the importance of self-care behaviors, such as quitting smoking, having regular eye and foot examinations, monitoring blood pressure and blood sugar, and keeping personal health-care records.
- Healthy coping—Working with patients to identify psychological and social factors that affect their health and helping them continue with effective self-care behaviors.
Tools to help your patients
Journey for Control offers a variety of tools that you can give to your patients to help them learn more about managing type 2 diabetes. You can get started by choosing from the following:
- Suggested basic information for newly diagnosed patients
- Recommended further reading for established patients
- Our entire database of patient education tools , easily searchable by key criteria relating to the AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors™
To find out more about the AADE, visit the AADE Web site.
AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors and AADE7 are trademarks of the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
Content specific to AADE used with permission of the American Association of Diabetes Educators. All rights reserved. Not for further reproduction or distribution without written permission of the AADE.
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