title: Working Together to Promote Diabetes Control: A Practical Guide for Diabetes Health Care Providers in Establishing a Working Alliance to Achieve Self-Management Support.
abstract: The quality of the "patient-carer" relationship is the foundation of self-management support and has been shown to influence treatment outcome in relation to psychological and somatic illness, including diabetes. It has long been accepted within applied psychology that the quality of the client-therapist relationship--termed the working alliance--is of central importance to treatment outcome and may account for a significant degree of the overall treatment effect. Diabetes healthcare providers have recently expressed a need for further training in communication techniques and in the psychological aspects of diabetes. Could we take a page from the psychological treatment manual on working alliance in therapy to guide the diabetes healthcare provider in their role of supporting the person with diabetes achieve and maintain better metabolic control? This paper examines the role of the working alliance in diabetes care and offers a practical guide to the diabetes healthcare provider in establishing a working alliance with the person with diabetes in managing diabetes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: CDHA Behaviour Change Institute, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4R2.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vallis
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK.
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cooke
authors.affiliation: Centre of Research on Psychology in Somatic Diseases (CoRPS), Department of Medical & Clinical Psychology, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, Netherlands.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pouwer
mesh_terms: D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012648:Self Care / Q000523:psychology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome