A task force of diabetes professionals has developed and published the brand new National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support. This version of the standards emphasizes communication between all members of the patient’s health care team, and putting the patient at the center of the team. These are not new ideas, but perhaps they needed to be reinforced.
I couldn’t help predicting, as I read about the new standards, that the next time the national standards for diabetes education and support are revised and updated, the task force will include people living with diabetes. These will be non-health care professionals or “lay” people, as they are called; however, they (you) are the ones who are at the center of the health care team. You are driving the way diabetes education and support are shaped and delivered, and diabetes health professionals need to hear your point of view.
If you had been on the task force this time around, what suggestions would you have offered for the National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support?