Recovery coaches for chronic disease management

We’ve been talking about talking about peer supports and recovery coaches for more than a decade. The use of para-professionals in the field goes back several decades.

Now, a new study evaluates a similar role for enhancing management of other chronic diseases.

Disease Management Care Blog provides a little analysis:

There is increasing interest in incorporating lay-persons in the outpatient care of persons with chronic conditions.  That makes sense, because much of the educational “payload” may be deliverable using far cheaper and more engaging “peer” members of the community who – literally – speak the patients’ language.  This is a nicely done randomized clinical trial done in a real world setting that adds to our understanding of this care option. The bottom line is that this study showed that the care guides had a real impact.