Interventions and working relationships of voluntary organisations for diabetes self-management: A cross-national study.

Background: Diabetes has become a challenging health priority globally. Given the tensions of financially burdened health systems in Europe the mobilisation of community resources like voluntary organisations and community groups is seen as a health policy strategy to sustain the management of long-term conditions like diabetes. However, little is known about how this is happening in practice in Europe.

Stakeholders in support systems for self-care for chronic illness: the gap between expectations and reality regarding their identity, roles and relationships.

Background And Objective: The spread of self-care holds the promise of containing chronic illness burden. Falling within the framework of a FP7 collaborative research project, this paper reports the views of key informants from six countries regarding who the main stakeholders are at different levels in the support system for self-care for patients with chronic illness (SSSC) and how they accomplish their role and collaborate.

Methods: 90 Interviews with purposefully selected key informants from Bulgaria, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and United Kingdom were conducted.

Negotiating Diet in Networks: A Cross-European Study of the Experiences of Managing Type 2 Diabetes.

Food and diet are central aspects of diabetes self-management but the relevance of social networks for the way people are supported in their management of type 2 diabetes is often under-acknowledged. In this article, we aimed to explore the coalescences between these two phenomena among people with type 2 diabetes to increase knowledge of interactions within social network related to daily diet. The article is based on 125 qualitative interviews with individuals with type 2 diabetes from five European countries.

Voluntary Organizations and Community Groups as New Partners in Diabetes Self-management and Education: A Critical Interpretative Synthesis.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to critically review the literature on the role and work of voluntary organizations and community groups and volunteers in diabetes self-management programs. It seeks to explain how these organizations are located and could be integrated further within a broader system of support.

Methods: A critical interpretative synthesis of the literature was undertaken as part of the conceptual development of a European research project.