Diabetes: A Joint Position Statement of the American Diabetes Association, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and the Academy of

Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires a person with diabetes to make a mul-titude of daily self-management decisions and to perform complex care activities. Diabetes self-management education and support (DSME/S) provides the founda-tion to help people with diabetes to navigate these decisions and activities and has been shown to improve health outcomes (1–7). Diabetes self-management educa-tion (DSME) is the process of facilitating the knowledge, skill, and ability necessary for diabetes self-care. Diabetes self-management support (DSMS) refers to the support that is required for implementing and sustaining coping skills and behaviors needed to self-manage on an ongoing basis. (See further definitions in Table 1.) Although different members of the health care team and community can contribute to this process, it is important for health care providers and their practice settings to have the resources and a systematic referral process to ensure that patients with type 2 diabetes receive both DSME and DSMS in a consistent manner. The initial DSME is typically provided by a health professional, whereas ongoing support can be provided by personnel within a practice and a variety of community-based resources