Best Answer
Self- management support refers to the help provided to people with chronic conditions. This help is designed to help patients manage chronic conditions on a daily basis. It is common with many conditions, but may be mentioned most often in the context of diabetes because diabetes is a manageable disease, but requires a substantial amount of self-care. Self-management support is based on several principles, which are focused on providing the patient with the tools to manage their health conditions.
The pillars of self-management include: involving the care team in planning patient visits, focusing patient visits on teaching prevention and care management, involving the patient in goal-setting, customizing education and skills training to each individual patient, referring patients to programs that can help support their healthcare efforts, consistent follow-up and support.
For example, diabetes support for many people involves changing perceptions of what it means to eat healthy, particularly the amount of carbs. Therefore, planning self-management support for a diabetic needs to start with fundamentals about diet and education. However, it is not enough to tell the patient what they should eat, but also explain why they should be eating it. Spending the time to explain how the body processes sugars and proteins differently and how that impacts blood sugar can help patients understand what they need to eat and when they need to eat it.
It is equally important to explain to the patient what it means to have a chronic disease. While people in the healthcare industry may think that people understand what it means to have a chronic disease, a surprising percentage of people do not understand that they will most likely have their diagnosis for a lifetime. This means that they need to follow their care regimes indefinitely, even if they begin to feel better.
