I have been providing group diabetes support sessions for the last seven years: same place, same time, and mostly the same people. I get 3 to 10 participants for a 90-minute monthly session. The sessions are very engaging with a lot of learning among all in attendance, including myself. Participants share information with each other about their experience with diabetes and I learn about the various ways that clinicians treat and help these patients.

The primary challenge with my group recently has been low attendance. I have tried all traditional ways to recruit more patients: advertisements, asking patients to refer other patients, talking with providers, etc., all just to pique more interest in these sessions. Then one day, it hit me – the problem wasn’t “how” I was trying to sell these sessions, it was the “what” that I was trying to sell. In other words, I needed to change the focus of the sessions.

As an experiment, I began my next session by asking each attendee to reflect and list out everything they have had to adopt and/or change since their diagnosis, and to set aside any outcomes from those changes for the time being. They soon began to realize that since their diagnosis with diabetes, they have adopted several new behaviors and skills that they would not have if they weren’t diagnosed. They were beginning to embrace their accomplishments and started to feel more in control.

With the session that followed, not only did all of the same attendees from the previous session show up, but also I got three new members and saw some old familiar faces that I hadn’t seen a while. We followed the same exercise of listing out accomplishments since diagnosis and setting aside the outcomes. Everyone participated and left the session feeling good about what they have been able to do and took pride in their accomplishments. They were optimistic about managing their condition and felt empowered by it. And when people feel good about themselves and empowered by what they can do, they begin to make changes for the better.

I learned a lot from these exercises and my patients. Because they were able to separate themselves emotionally from their diabetes, they no longer felt defined by it. They are feeling better about managing their condition and are in more control of their health and their future. It’s experiences like these that make me proud to be a diabetes educator.

Have you ever shifted the focus of your sessions to better impact peoples’ attitudes toward their diabetes and improve session attendance? Please share your stories with us.

Barbara