Poster Presentations

Session Title: Poster Discussions B
Category: Psycho-social and peer support
Presentation Date: Saturday, November 08, 2008

IMPROVING FEELINGS ON DIABETES MELLITUS FROM A PATIENT CENTERED APPROACH

R. Garcia
National Institute of Endocrinology, Education and Social Departament, La Habana, Cuba

Aim: To comparethe people thinking before and after an education intervention taking intoaccount the individual feelings.
Subjects: People with diabetes attendant the Daily CareService during 6 months (N=321).
Methods: Daily Service is a one weekactivity where care and education go together. People stayed at the centre thelong day and come back home for dinner and bedtime. The purpose is to learn tocope with diabetes. Education activities start and finish with a participativetechnique “Diabetes and my life” where people define “What they feel livingwith diabetes”. The group socializes their ideas and these expressionsare taking into account during the week, helping people to reflect.
Result: Words during the startingactivity were: sadness, affliction, oppression, limitation, rejection. Theyrelated these words with phrases as “Diabetes restraint me”. “It is difficult to accept this reality”. “Theworld comes over me”. At the end of the week, they have written: something more,hope, responsibility, acceptance. They socialized these words with “Diabetescan be something more in my life” “Learning more we can hope to avoidcomplications” “The problem is not diabetes but what I do with my diabetes” “To change life isbetter than to lose life”. Knowledge and skills were also increase.
Conclusion: Therapeutic education, focus on people and starting looking for their wayof thinking, contributes not only to get information but to improvecomprehension and feeling on diabetes.