With the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists Annual meeting (formerly AADE) right around the corner, we’re taking a brief break from our solution-focused word of the week series to highlight some of the sessions that will be presented at the ADCES meeting on psychosocial and behavioral health and technology. They align with our thinking and approach, and we thought might be of interest to you too.
This typically in-person meeting is always one of our favorite times of the year! It is such a great opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues while being energized about the work we do in diabetes care and education. However, in light of the pandemic, this year’s meeting (like many others) has gone virtual. So it is with mixed emotions that we share this ADCES preview. While we look forward to learning from colleagues in the comfort of our homes this year, we so wish times were different and we could share coffee or lunch together, catch up on everyone’s lives over a glass of wine, give a lot of hugs, and dance the night away at the annual Sunday night dance party. Especially for the two of us, we have not been together in person since last October. One of our hopes in collaborating on this blog together was that we’d have the opportunity to spend more in-person time together. While we engage via Zoom, it’s just not the same.
We’re excited to share that we had an abstract accepted to present as an oral session at the originally scheduled in-person meeting in Atlanta on “Flipping the Paradigm: Applying a Solution-Focused Approach to the AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors”! But due to the condensed nature of the virtual meeting we opted out, with the hope that we can share our full presentation next year (fingers crossed!). In the meantime, we’ve had our first research paper incorporating a solution-focused approach published! You can find it online, Applying a Solution-Focused Approach to Life With Diabetes: Insights Gleaned via Twitter. This paper resulted from our presentation at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes last fall. We report the findings of our online study where we employed the Miracle Question approach during a Twitter chat. 5 themes evolved of a desired future state: more of living life; laughter and humor; self-compassion; resilience; and support.
Here are 6 of the sessions of interest that you may want to check out (all times are central time zone):
GS02 – Mobilizing for Health Equity (Friday, Aug 14 9:00 AM, 1 hour)
This session will provide the participant with an understanding of the history and impact of structural racism on health equity. Throughout the presentation, Dr. Blackstone will define structural racism and how it relates to the social determinants of health. The participant will leave the session with key strategies to make individual steps toward interacting with equity.
F06 – Empowering African Americans With Diabetes Through Positive Thinking (Friday, Aug 14 2:05 PM, 30 minutes)
African Americans face many challenges associated with diabetes self-management and it is common for them to fall into negative thinking patterns. Researchers suggest that positive thinking can lead to improved diabetes management and empowerment to foster independence, self-management and the ability to question and make informed choices. This presentation offers 6 positive thinking strategies that can be utilized to assist in empowering the African American participant.
F05 – Integrating Diabetes Technology Into the Clinical Paradigm (Friday, Aug 14 1:00 PM, (1 hour)
New and emerging technologies can help people with diabetes optimize glucose levels, reduce diabetes burden, achieve improved quality of life, and reduce the risk of acute and chronic complications. Diabetes care and education specialists and clinical practices are struggling to keep up with the pace of technological change. While essential, expertise in diabetes technology is not enough. There must also be processes in place to streamline paperwork and documentation, optimize clinical flow, educate staff and providers, and obtain reimbursement. This session will provide an overview of how diabetes technology can be effectively integrated into the clinical paradigm and discuss the role of the diabetes care and education specialist as the clinic’s technology expert and champion.
F12 – COVID-19 Update: Protecting Adults with Diabetes (Friday, Aug 14 3:45 PM, 30 minutes)
A significant portion of the U.S. population is vulnerable to severe complications, including death, from COVID-19. In addition, social disruptions secondary to the pandemic response are creating new vulnerabilities in the provision of chronic disease care and self-management for non-pandemic illnesses. This presentation will expand foundational knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 on people with diabetes and provide strategies through education and technology to protect adults with diabetes from COVID-19 while reducing gaps in diabetes care and self-management.
S06 – Diabetes Psychology and Diabetes Services: Similarities and Differences (Saturday, Aug 15 10:40 AM, 30 minutes)
This presentation will explain how diabetes psychology is used to help people implement new behaviors, navigate social stressors and manage the feelings of anxiety, depression and stress that often accompany diabetes. A discussion of similarities and differences between diabetes psychology and diabetes services will be provided. A model for integrating diabetes psychology with diabetes services will be described with examples of implementation at the San Diego VA hospital.
D09 – Using Mindfulness in Veterans to Lower Diabetes Distress (Sunday, Aug 16 12:05 PM, 30 minutes)
Mindfulness benefits veterans with depression and PTSD, but little is known about the impact of mindfulness in those with diabetes. This presentation will share our experiences and participant perspectives of a mindfulness-based diabetes education intervention that utilizes a digital application to support daily mindfulness in everyday life. Additionally, we will examine associations between mindfulness, diabetes distress (DD), stress-related symptoms, and glycemic management (A1C) and show how incorporating a mindfulness intervention into DSMES can target both DD and A1C in at-risk populations.
Also, check out Deb’s 2 research presentations, one oral and one poster:
Not all participants achieve DPP outcomes. Identifying opportunities to augment, enrich and enhance the traditional program are needed to meet individual needs. This session will present data from a 12-month observational study that evaluated the effectiveness of an innovative, behaviorally enriched Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), on program outcomes of attendance, weight loss and physical activity. This innovative, coach-led, behaviorally-enriched DPP was designed specifically to engage and motivate a “hard to reach”, mobile population at risk for developing type 2 diabetes using a behavior and social assessment and decision support tool set to facilitate a practical behavior change model (Information, Motivation, Skills) integrated into routine team care delivery and clinical software applications. Note: Sarah Downs and Alyssa Griswold contributed as co-authors on this submission.
Diabetes is twice as likely to affect Hispanic people than their Caucasian counterparts. Our previous community-based participatory research demonstrated that technology in addition to social support is necessary to effect diabetes-related behaviour change in Hispanic individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). In this feasibility study, we address gaps in diabetes care for Hispanic people with T2DM by combining technology with an online peer support intervention. The inclusion of Hispanic, Spanish-speaking peer facilitators with diabetes lived experience will enable culturally appropriate discussion, advice and strategies to enhance the use of CGM and improve diabetes outcomes in participants. This poster presentation will describe the study background, methodology and intervention protocol.
Also, please consider attending the Dexcom Educational Theater on Thursday, August 13, 2020 at 2:45 pm CT, Lighting the Fire: Bringing DSMES to Life with CGM with Dr. Bill Polonsky and Dr. Diana Isaacs. During this session, Dr. Diana Isaacs incorporates solution-focused principles when discussing CGM data with her clients.* This program is open to anyone whether attending the conference or not. You can register here.
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*Note: Deb is employed by Dexcom but anything posted on this blog is her personal opinion.