The Role and Value of Ongoing and Peer Support in Diabetes Care and Education.

Managing diabetes during the stages and ages of life is chronically challenging and complex. Various types of support offered by health care providers, including diabetes care and education specialists and others in the person's social support milieu, can positively affect emotional well-being. Health care providers should routinely assess their client's social supports and refer the person with diabetes and/or their caregivers to evidence-based types of peer support mutually determined to be of most value. Diabetes care and education specialists should increase their awareness of opportunities to integrate the value of and referral to peer support in their counseling and to gain greater insight into the diabetes-lived experience.