Generational Approach to Counseling People with Diabetes

This product is free for COGA members.

This webinar was presented live on February 17, 2021.

As dietitians, we are as likely to see a 42 year old adult who has just been diagnosed with T2 diabetes, as we are a child or teen that has just been diagnosed with Type 1 or a 74 year old whose doctor said she has pre-diabetes. This presents a challenge to us as we face a cadre of clients from multiple generations.

Much like gender, socioeconomics and race, our generational affiliation strongly influences how we think, learn, communicate, and may affect make our food choices. The generations we are most likely to encounter in our diabetes education careers include five generational groups: Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennial and Generation Z.

It is important that dietitians understand the individual generational elements that can impact their diet and overall diabetes care and how can we best approach different generations to achieve our desired educational outcome.

This presentation will cover generational characteristics, the impact of these differences in patient care and best practices for diet strategies in the pursuit to manage diabetes.

CPEU: 1.0
CPE Level: 2
Performance Indicators: 2.1, 8.2, 9.6

Learning Objectives

• Identify at least three defining events of each generation that shaped characteristic
• Identify at least four differences in thoughts and views about diet management for people with diabetes
• Name at least four ways to create bridges across generations to enhance the communication and learning

Speaker

Toby Smithson, MS, RDN, LD, CDCES, CCP, FAND

Toby Smithson dynamically combines her knowledge as a certified diabetes care and education specialist and registered dietitian nutritionist with her life experiences successfully managing type 1 diabetes for more than five decades. She is a speaker, vlogger, writer, coach and consultant dietitian.

She has a YouTube channel vlogging credible information about diabetes management on this frequently used social media venue. She founded DiabetesEveryDay.com, an online technical and lifestyle support resource for people with diabetes, offering constant access to her unique professional and personal diabetes management insights, primarily through original video segments.

Toby is a regular blogger for U.S. News & World Report, covering health and nutrition topics connected to diabetes, and is a monthly contributor to Type2diabetes.com, writing on nutrition and lifestyle issues related to diabetes She is the principal author of Diabetes Meal Planning and Nutrition for Dummies (Wiley 2013).