New Help for Those with Chronic Disease
By Mary Young
Many Salt Lake County senior centers and other facilities offer free classes to help seniors manage chronic diseases. The programs are based on the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) developed at Stanford University in 1995. Since that time, the CDSMP workshops have been taught all over the world. A five-year study found that patients who participated in the program improved their cognitive symptom management, exercise habits, coping, and communication with their doctors. In addition, they also improved their health and social activities, while decreasing their fatigue, disability, and days in the hospital. I’ve personally experienced the benefits and have become an instructor myself.
What is taught in these classes?
In this CDSMP course, instructors teach six basic elements, called Healthy Living with Chronic Conditions:
1. Techniques to deal with problems such as frustration, fatigue, pain, and isolation;
2. Appropriate exercise for maintaining and improving strength, flexibility, and endurance;
3. Appropriate use of medications;
4. Communicating effectively with family, friends, and health professionals;
5. Nutrition; and
6. Evaluating new treatments.
Where are they held and who teaches them?
The programs are scheduled “in community settings such as senior centers, churches, libraries, and hospitals.” People with different chronic health problems attend together. Workshops are facilitated by two trained leaders, at least one of whom is a non-health professional with a chronic disease. I’m one of them.
Who should attend classes like these?
Anyone with an ongoing condition should attend a CDSMP course. Ongoing conditions include asthma, arthritis, chronic joint pain, fibromyalgia, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart failure, COPD or emphysema, depression, chronic pain, and others.
What do participants take home from the classes?
Class participants who attend these free workshops (which are conducted for six weeks, for 2 1/2 hours each session) also receive a book and a CD free of charge. The book, Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions, offers excellent self-help ideas, and the relaxation CD, Time for Healing, will help participants learn to relax so both mind and body take part in the healing process.
What are the benefits?
Those who take the CDSMP workshop often report healthier habits and a rapid improvement in all areas mentioned above. Many set goals to do more aerobic exercise and more stretching and breathing exercises. The students, mostly seniors with a variety of conditions from arthritis to high blood pressure, also set reasonable, achievable goals for self-improvement in other areas. The program is not only about managing symptoms, but a path to rediscovering more of the things in life that bring joy. That is what it did for me, and can do for you.
Where is more information available?
The CDSMP is currently being expanded beyond Salt Lake County. For more information, call Kathy Hoenig, with the Salt Lake County Aging Services, at (801) 468-2470, for details on workshops. Those who know of a facility, church, library, or other location for a workshop may inquire about the possibility of scheduling the program there.
If you suffer from a chronic disease, consider taking these classes. I recommend them because they have helped me so much. You have nothing to lose, and so much to gain!