This course prepares health professionals to provide effective self-management support to patients with chronic conditions. Regardless of specific disease etiology, all chronic conditions present similar demands on patients, who must find ways to successfully manage their symptoms, treatments and preventive health behaviors on a day-to-day basis.  Health professionals have a central role in supporting patients to successfully self-manage their conditions, and importantly, this support goes well beyond disease education. This course outlines essential self-management skills that every patient must have to optimize health outcomes, and then describes a range of ways in which clinicians can impart and support these skills. Brief primary care-based interventions, such as the 5A and SMART strategies, are presented. Longer format interventions are also discussed, including group medical visits and lay-led self-management programs. The evidence to support and the relative advantages of each format are reviewed.

• Describe the essential aspects of patient self-management that are necessary for the successful management of any chronic condition.
• Differentiate disease education interventions from self-management support interventions.
• Summarize different settings and approaches for providing self-management training and support to patients, including primary care and community-based interventions.
• Compare the relative advantages and evidence to support each of the self-management support approaches.