As well as music Ian has also been working in the field of long term condition management for nearly 10 years, initially with the charity Arthritis Care, but now as an independent trainer. Self management of long term conditions was brought together as a written course over 20 years ago by Prof Kate Lorig at Stanford University in California (Ian and Prof Lorig are pictured left). The programme has grown and expanded and is now given in nearly 30 countries worldwide and in a variety of languages.

Ian was trained as a Master Trainer in both the Arthritis Self Management Programme (ASMP) and the Chronic Disease Self Management Programme (CDSMP) he furthered his involvement by being trained as a T Trainer at Stanford in 2007, returning the following year to train on the new Type 2 Diabetes programme. He is now trained on the Positive Self Management Programme (PSMP) for living with HIV/AIDS as well.

In the last 5 years he has run over 30 leader trainings and helped set up programmes in Ireland, Lithuania and Slovenia. In the autumn of 2011 Ian together with Jean Thompson ran the first Stanford Type 2 Diabetes Training in Romania to 24 health professionals. He is the current chair of the UK T Trainer group and works closely with EPP CIC and other organisations delivering self management training. External trainings have included running two Master Trainer Trainings mostly for staff from English PCT’s and he has also run Assessor, Delivery Skills and Update Training as well as working as an independent facilitator. He has been involved with SS2Q for a number of years and also has experience in the video conference delivery of courses to remote communities.

Ian is a Consultant Member of the Talking Health Network, a confederation of trainers in the self management field who can design, deliver or support self management training throughout the UK and Europe. Talking Health Network Website

Effective therapies against diabetes depends on the patient's ability to manage disease, trainers say Stanford University School of Medicine
Author: Raluca Bajenaru     Posted on October 26, 2011

Half of the effectiveness of therapies against diabetes is the patient's ability to manage the disease, said Dr. Cristian Serafinceanu from the National Institute of Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases "Prof. Dr. N. Paulescu" during a press conference with running in Romania at Stanford University School of Medicine - Diabetes Self-Management Programme . Initiated by the Romanian Society of Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases, Bristol Myers Squibb together with companies and AstraZeneca, the program five days to prepare plans for medical staff, in turn, doctors and nurses to provide patients with information which could help them better manage their disease and enjoy a better quality of life. "Education of the diabetic patient is more important than any other condition and should raise awareness of authorities on the importance and difficulties in this area. What we do is, in fact, risk management and it is hard to convince people about the danger which lurks, but do not feel it. The prevention is not cheaper or easier, but it is much better, since every complication of diabetes avoided won eight patient years of life, a better quality of living, "said Professor Dr . Serafinceanu who referred to the spread of diabetes in the world as an "explosion pandemic", noting that only the Bucharest are diagnosed each year 3,000 people with diabetes. "For the success of such a program requires support from the authorities, the medical system, but also from health professionals and patients. The more difficult changes are the authorities and the medical system and the most effective changes are small but the impact, "said Jean Thompson (England), one of the trainers from the Stanford University who gave courses in the program . Thompson said that the UK has so far invested millions of pounds to educate patients with chronic diseases and that the moment they started to prepare physicians to help patients become as independent in managing the disease. "When you are diagnosed with diabetes already are labelled in some way, and the first step is accepting the disease and the changes you need to do in life - you continue to eat, for example, but otherwise, you have to restart you move, to go shopping differently - reading labels more carefully. We tried to make the doctors to put patients and instead try to think like them because, in addition to medical standpoint, there is a need for emotional management of the disease and the patient's social role " said Ian Darling (Scotland), trainer for Stanford University, adding that according to studies, better communication with the physician and the patient better education about the disease have reduced visits to family doctors or psychologists, and need for prescribing certain drugs, thus saving resources for health systems.