The Critical Psychosocial Issues in Diabetes web-based program is a series of video modules designed to examine psychosocial issues in diabetes, provide a brief review of the research literature, clarify how and why the problems manifest themselves among patients with diabetes, and put forward practical solutions for the busy healthcare professional.

The American Diabetes Association published its first Psychosocial Position Statement in December, 2016, recognizing the important role of emotional, social and behavioral influences on those living with diabetes. To achieve satisfactory medical outcomes, self-care adherence to key diabetes tasks and psychological well-being, the Position Statement emphasized how critical it is that these complex psychosocial factors be identified and addressed. The goal is to adopt a person-centered care model, which necessitates that patient-provider communications and interactions, problem identification, psychosocial screening and intervention take into account the context of the person with diabetes.

In particular, poor adherence to diabetes self-care recommendations is recognized as a major contributor to poor health outcomes, but healthcare professionals (HCPs) are often unsure how best to address this issue. The new Position Statement is one step forward, but how best to enact these broad recommendations in a busy clinical practice? Many HCPs express a strong interest in receiving training in this area, but there is little, if any, opportunity to do so. The Critical Psychosocial Issues in Diabetes web modules have been developed to address this need and provide tools for HCPs to utilize in practice.

Global Objectives

Each module has customized learning objectives, outlined in the pre-activity material within each individual course.

Following completion of all modules, participants should be able to:

• Describe the complex role of motivation in diabetes self-care.
• Perform a comprehensive assessment of the common obstacles to cardiometabolic medication initiation and adherence.
• Demonstrate collaborative communication skills aimed towards enhancing patients’ belief that adequate self-management is necessary and worthwhile.
• Describe the key strategies for addressing patient reluctance to initiate new cardiometabolic medications and/or maintain medication adherence over time.

Method of Participation

Modules range from 1-1.25 hours in length and are delivered via a streaming platform in the optimal format for your viewing device. These programs are available free of charge.

Each module is separately accredited, and can be re-accessed any time during the accreditation period. To obtain credit, participants should take a brief pre-activity survey, watch the module, answer the multiple-choice post test questions, and complete the evaluation form online to receive a certificate.

Target Audience

These activities designed for health care professionals that treat patients with diabetes including endocrinologists, primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, registered dieticians, pharmacists, certified diabetes educators, and other healthcare providers wishing to work more effectively with their patients to promote better medication adherence and more successful self-management.

UC San Diego Continuing Medical Education

The Mission of UC San Diego Continuing Medical Education is to provide needs based education for physicians and health care providers to improve knowledge, competence and performance and enable the optimum provision of health care. University of California, San Diego Continuing Medical Education is committed to providing innovative education that impacts health care providers’ knowledge and behavior, with the ultimate goal of improved patient care. UC San Diego CME has expertise in numerous educational interventions that can be utilized to optimize learning, support behavior change, and document outcomes.

Behavioral Diabetes Institute

The Behavioral Diabetes Institute (BDI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with diabetes live long, healthy and happy lives by recognizing and addressing the critical emotional aspects of the disease. Founded in 2004, the BDI provides behaviorally-based education and training in self-management for patients with diabetes (this includes live programs as well as print and online materials and programs) and professional training services for health care professionals, while also conducting independent research to elucidate the key emotional and behavioral contributors to successful diabetes management.