BEYO Project to Promote Sense of Coherence and Self-care of Elderly People With Type 2 Diabetes

1. Objectives of the Project The BEYO project is designed based on the middle range theory of self-care of chronic illness and salutogenic theory. The aim of this project is to facilitate self-care behaviours of community-dwelling elderly patients with type 2 diabetes through promoting SOC, and accordingly improve their health outcomes, including promoting quality of life and reducing diabetes-related emotional distress. 2. Content of the Project BEYO is a group-based consultation project. Each group contains 1 facilitator, 1 assistant and 8 elderly patients. 5 weekly sessions are provided to let patients receive health knowledge, discuss problems and experiences, explore available resources and build up goals and solutions. Each session lasts for 40 minutes. Session 1 aims to build social network among group members and introduce group goals and tasks. Session 2-4 covers six topics based on the Chinese guideline for type 2 diabetes released by Chinese diabetes society: (i) healthy dietary, (ii) exercise and activity, (iii) taking medication, (iv) blood glucose monitoring, (v) reducing risks for complication, (vi) healthy coping with mental stress. These middle sessions execute a common session flow to construct an action plan utilizing patients' resources and strengths to achieve the client-centered goal. Session 5 aims to review the process, summarize effective solutions, and set up plans for the future. One-week, one-month and three-month telephone follow-ups are delivered to help patients solve problems encountered during implementing the action plan and evaluate their self-care, SOC and other health outcomes.