Managing emotional aspects. Guide from the Spanish Diabetes Society

Abstract

The health teams supporting people with diabetes often must deal with the psychosocial aspects affecting its management. However, they often receive no education or tools to support them in the task. The Educación Terapéutica working group from the Sociedad Española de Diabetes aims to answer that need. Marina Beléndez, Javier Hurtado, and myself are psychologists in that working group. Seeing this need, we resolved to craft a guide to alleviate the problem.

During bibliographic revision, we came across the following manual: Diabetes and Emotional Health by Dr. C. Hendrieckx, Ms. J. Haliday y Prof. J. Speight for The National Diabetes Services Scheme in Australia (NDSS). As it answered our needs, we resolved to translate it and adapt it to our clinical environment instead of starting from scratch. That book aims to promote awareness of the psychological problems affecting adults with diabetes. Furthermore, it offers practical materials (validated questionnaires and information sheets) for patients. The guide is structured in several chapters. Each one approaches in a practical manner a psychological aspect of diabetes (distress caused by diabetes, depression, eating disorders, etc.). The structure of each chapter is as follows: - Key message. - Main points to consider. - Epidemiology. - Expansion on the topic. - How to identify the problem. - How the health professional can help. - Case studies. - Additional resources, some for professionals and others for people with diabetes.

The intervention model followed in each chapter is called the 7 A's and is based in the "5 A's" developed to modify conducts like tobacco consumption. The "5 A's" (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange) was proposed by the National Cancer Institute in the USA and was completed in collaboration with the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. The 7 A's proposed by the original authors are: Aware, Ask, Assess, Advise, Assist, Assign, Arrange These steps are organized such that they answer the most frequently asked questions for health professionals: - How can I identify a particular psychological ailment? - How can I support my patient? This material is available in a digital format on the website of the Sociedad Española de Diabetes . Lastly, it's relevant to note that there exist several other adaptations of the same material, such as those developed by Diabetes UK and ADA, which grant it a high degree of credibility.