4. Core 4 - Social Support
Types of Social Support
- Emotional: Offering expressions of empathy, trust, and caring. For example, patients listening to each other’s experiences with diabetes and feeling understood.
- Instrumental: Giving tangible aid and service. For example, health centers offering transportation to help patients get to their group visit sessions, lending patients tablets for access to virtual sessions, or providing access to fresh produce.
- Informational: Providing information, advice, and suggestions. For example, medical provider explaining to a patient what their lab results mean and how they could improve their glucose levels.
- Appraisal: Presenting information that is useful for self-evaluation. For example, reminding patients to think about their own strengths, skills, and prior experiences that can help them succeed with their current self-management goals.
“What I love about my virtual group visits I got to meet other people that’s having the same problems I’m having and I got to open up about my diabetes.”
“Other people ask questions that I don’t even think about. [I like] just being around people that have the same struggles. [We] cheer each other on.”
How Can Group Visits Provide Support?
1. Peers provide emotional support
Group visits allow patients to work together, communicate, and exchange ideas, which may reduce feelings of stigma and isolation that accompany chronic illness. Even though group visits are not support groups, patients have the opportunity to engage in open discussion. Health center staff are often surprised to see how open and vulnerable patients are in their conversations. Patients say they appreciate having other people who understand their shared experiences with diabetes.
2. Peers provide informational and appraisal support
Peers can also offer access to knowledge by generating discussion topics, articulating or anticipating challenges, and participating in group problem solving. Peers who share goals and success stories may serve as positive role models. Discussing progress on goals with the group may motivate accountability and inspire change through social comparison with other group participants. Health center staff have been pleasantly surprised hearing patients share A1Cs and everyone celebrating victories together.
3. Staff provide informational and appraisal support
In group visits, patients have access to qualified staff who can guide and support them as well. The group visit team prepares educational activities and brings in guest speakers to share their knowledge on diabetes-related topics. During the medical visit, the provider offers even more information though evidence-based, personalized care. Health center staff help patients set goals and check in with patients each session to ask about their progress, helping patients to reflect on their successes and challenges.
“The patients really responded positively to this model of care, and they were invested in each other’s progress.”
“It was an easy-going atmosphere. I felt motivated but not judged.”
Overall, with the help of supportive peers and dedicated staff, group visits have the potential to provide all aspects of social support whether it be emotional, instrumental, informational, or appraisal. There is a section in the planning worksheet to help you think about facilitating social support. You may also refer to the Conducting Group Visits page or the Other Group Visit Toolkits page for more tips on facilitating groups.