Psychotherapist offers tools to manage resistance, improve DSM
Eliot LeBow, LCSW, CDE
Maximizing the time spent with patients is a common struggle, and economic pressures and an overtaxed medical system continue to chip away at that time. It is even more challenging to manage the little time you have with patients when persons with diabetes are resistant to diabetes self-management education.
Eliot LeBow, LCSW, CDE, a licensed psychotherapist who focuses on diabetes in his private practice in New York, will present “Managing Resistance to Improve DSM” from 9:15 am to 10:15 am today in Room 208-210.
LeBow, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 6, said he knows and understands the core concepts of patient-centered education will help healthcare professionals gain a greater understanding of why patients are resistant to diabetes education.
“I will discuss how to personalize diabetes education to match the patient’s feelings, experience and abilities,” LeBow said. “I will address the importance of empowering patients and the necessity of patients to become vested in their treatment as well as in recommendations from healthcare providers.”
He will examine motives for noncompliance — from illiteracy to the loss of the patient’s lifestyle — and how to address these treatment barriers. Understanding the roots of resistance allows for improved decision-making around a patient’s treatment plan and how to minimize, or even prevent, resistance from occurring.
LeBow also will offer tools to reduce resistance to learning and diabetes self-management, including techniques from various therapeutic modalities, such as psychodynamic, motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral techniques
“With these tools, healthcare providers can motivate persons with diabetes to learn the skills needed to manage their diabetes and remain compliant,” he said.
