[Self-Management_OR] Rural Sustainability of CDSMP

[Miles Susan M]

Sharing experiences about maintaining sustainable CDSMP programs in rural areas:

I  coordinate the CDSMP program in San Diego CA.  We have a mix of urban, suburban and rural farm areas in our mix.  Regardless of the demographic, we have similar issues with retention of lay leaders and inconsistency in enrollment and attendance.

One recent strategy that has been helping us may work for you.  We have been contacting the disease-specific support groups and forming relationships through some guest speaking at their meetings and with their organizers.   This has been yielding good recruitment since these folks have already self-identified as having a chronic condition and are already seeking ways to remediate it; they are  already successfully showing up at meetings related to health. Their organizations have agreed to put our workshop schedule in their newsletters and/or distribute flyers as their meetings.  We try to schedule our guest speaking a near as possible to the next workshop in the area.

This does require us to continue doing the task actual enrollment activities.  If we expect too much from the group admin, they get overwhelmed. We funnel the participants in to existing workshops in the area in order to minimize and competing for target market.   So far we have had good luck with "Better Breathers"  American Diabetes Association, and we are working on Cancer Survivors.  

I hope that this may prove useful for you.  It has been the first really effective thing we've done after trying out a full year of marketing ideas.

Of course, our 'gold standard" workshops are still the ones done by social service agencies that have Community Health Workers who are also workshop leaders.  They recruit for their own workshops, personally, one-to-one, while out on house visits to help with other issues.  They even sometimes have connections to rural transportation options.  Those organizations are rare, precious treasures.  Ours is Union of Pan Asian Communities  EMASS program. 
(Elder services for mental health).

Charlotte Tenney, MIH
Healthier Living Workshop Coordinator
858-495-5230  or cell phone 619-985-6376 a program of San Diego County / Aging & Independence Services 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: self-manage [mailto:self-manage-bounces at lists.stanford.edu] On Behalf Of Massie, Sherry (VDH)
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2014 11:14 AM
To: Stanford Master Trainers List
Subject: Re: [SELF-MGMT] Rural Sustainability of CDSMP

We partner with the local Agency on Aging and co train as well as support each organization with workshop leaders.  We have also formed a local coalition here on the Peninsula of Virginia that brings together about 10 different organizations with vested interest. You may want to look towards your communities action plan for support for the program. 

-----Original Message-----
From: self-manage [mailto:self-manage-bounces at lists.stanford.edu] On Behalf Of Brenda Franson
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2014 11:58 AM
To: self-manage at lists.stanford.edu
Subject: [SELF-MGMT] Rural Sustainability of CDSMP

Hey All!

Would you please share your experiences about maintaining sustainable CDSMP programs in rural areas? 

Brenda Franson
CDSMP Coordinator
Rexburg, Idaho