November is National Diabetes Month. This year, we’re highlighting the importance of working with a health care team to manage diabetes.

People with diabetes are at the center of their diabetes care team. Working with health care professionals—which can include primary care providers, nurses, eye doctors, diabetes care and education specialists, pharmacists, mental health professionals, and others—can help patients get the support they need to understand their disease, develop a diabetes self-care plan, and prevent or manage diabetes-related health problems and complications.

The blog posts below offer specific tips and tools to help health care professionals team up to provide care for their patients. You can also use the flyers and social media content available in English and Spanish in our National Diabetes Month toolkit to share messages about working as part of a diabetes care team.

Pre-visit Planning Saves Time
Marie T. Brown, MD, shares pre-visit planning strategies to help health care teams assess and address diabetes management during office visits.

Every Person with Diabetes Needs Ongoing Self-Management Education and Support
Margaret Powers, PhD, RD, CDE, discusses when—and how—health care professionals should refer patients to diabetes care and education specialists.

Diabetes Nutrition Counseling for the Non-RD
Melinda Maryniuk RD, MEd, CDE, explains how the entire health care team can help reinforce healthy eating principles for patients with diabetes.

Implementing Diabetes Group Visits in Community Health Centers
Arshiya Baig, MD, MPH, discusses shared medical appointments, an innovative way for a diabetes care team to collaborate and provide diabetes care for groups of patients.

How can you use telehealth to provide patient-centered diabetes care? 
Stephanie Crossen, MD, MPH, highlights the benefits and challenges of remote diabetes care. 

Addressing Cardiovascular Risk Factors in People with Diabetes
Nathan D. Wong, PhD, emphasizes the importance of involving the health care team—which can include dietitians, exercise physiologists, and cardiologists—to help lower cardiovascular disease risk in patients with diabetes.

Diabetes Distress and Depression
Jeffrey Gonzalez, PhD, discusses how health care professionals can collaborate with mental health specialists to provide care for patients with diabetes who are at risk for diabetes distress or depression.

How do you provide team-based care for patients with diabetes? Tell us below in the comments.