Health care providers hear new techniques

    HOULTON — National speaker Dr. Bill Polonsky spent the day with health care professionals last week as part of a workshop at Houlton Regional Hospital.
Pioneer Times Photo/Sarah Berthiaume
TALKING SHOP — Dr. Bill Polonsky, a nationally-recognized speaker, spent the day at Houlton Regional Hospital April 11, talking with health care professionals about how they can support patients with diabetes. Here, Polonsky talks with Georgia Clark-Albert, center, and Lori Downs, right, both of whom traveled north from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bangor for the event.
    Health care providers from as far away as Bangor, Fairfield and Fort Kent headed to Houlton April 11 to learn about “Promoting Behavior Change in Diabetes: A Skill Building Program for Health Care Professionals.”
    “One of the most important things we’ve been talking about is the fact that none of our patients are unmotivated to live a long and healthy life,” said Polonsky during an afternoon break in the workshop. “If we can convince health care providers that that’s true then it, at very least, means they and their patients are on the same side. If they believe it’s true, it also means that their job as a provider changes.”
    A critical part of managing a chronic disease like diabetes is making major changes in behavior and lifestyle. One challenge health care providers face is helping patients make those changes.
    “To help people make and maintain healthy behavior changes — which, by the way, most of us aren’t very good at —isn’t a matter of motivating people or trying to make them more scared. It’s a matter of identifying what their obstacles are and what’s in the way because they are perfectly motivated to live a long and healthy life. It’s just that sometimes other things get in the way of that — harmful beliefs about diabetes, depression, not being exactly clear on what they need to do or what changes are needed,” explained Polonsky. “Everything we’ve been doing today is about giving care providers the tools they need to come along side patients and work with them in a collaborative fashion to help patients be successful.”
    Among those who attended the day-long event were senior nursing students from Northern Maine Community College (NMCC). Eileen McDougall, a member of the NMCC nursing faculty, said she thought the Polonsky’s advice was a “great benefit” to future nurses.
    “It gives them practical examples of how to approach the patients they’ll be working with,” McDougall said. “And not just diabetes patients. These techniques could be applied to other patients. The hands-on approach is beneficial to all, but especially to those [nurses] just starting out. It makes it real.”
    Polonsky’s techniques also help make it real for patients, added Larry Tonzi, FNP.
    “He talks a lot about a technique called motivational interviewing. It’s a series of techniques you can use to help people understand the disease from their perspective. It’s less about advice giving and more about guidance,” said Tonzi.
    Polonsky, who earned his PhD in clinical psychology from Yale University, is president and founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute, the “world’s first organization dedicated to tackling the unmet psychological needs of people with diabetes.” A licensed clinical psychologist, certified diabetes educator and associate clinical professor in psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, he has served with the editorial boards of numerous professional and lay publications. He has also served as senior psychologist at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and as chairman of the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators.
    Locally, his workshop was sponsored by Houlton Regional Hospital and the Houlton Band of Maliseets.