You can notice the articles about small group or buzz group teaching that a teacher teaches and the patients participate in education and help togethers.
there is plenty of research on this topic. You might want to look for lay- or peer-led self-management support. A good starting point are the reviews done by the Health Foundation in the UK or reviews published by NICE:
De Silva, D. (2011). Evidence: Helping people help themselves. A review of the evidence considering whether it is worthwhile to support self-management. (The Health Foundation, Ed.). London: The Health Foundation. ==> http://www.health.org.uk/publications/evidence-helping-people-help-themselves/
Taylor, S. J., Pinnock, H., Epiphaniou, E., Pearce, G., Parke, H. L., Schwappach, A., … Sheikh, A. (2014). A rapid synthesis of the evidence on interventions supporting self-management for people with long-term conditions: PRISMS – Practical systematic RevIew of Self-Management Support for long-term conditions. Health Services and Delivery Research, 2(53), 1–580. doi:10.3310/hsdr02530 ==> http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr/volume-2/issue-53
They include evidence on the (imperative) importance of peer support in patient education.
As well as the above recommendations - have a look at Stanford University where a great deal of research on chronic disease lay led programs has been developed starting in the 1980's ( Lorig et al.) . The Stanford U. Chronic Disease Self Management Programs (CDSMP) design has become the cornerstone for much of the work that has since developed and been adopted in North America, most particularly since the redesign of primary health care started.
Through the lay-led initiatives you will see that those leaders are non health care professionals trained in the disease specific CDSMP and have a chronic disease themselves.
There is also evidence in the literature re: women with heart disease being mentored and coached by women who have heart disease themselves and may have had a critical event . This is more in the social domain as opposed to the clinical setting:
thanks for adding the Stanford approach, which seems to be one of the programs that stands out with a large evidence base. And it also appears to be one of the few if not the only program for people living with multi-morbidity.
Let me add here a link to a blog post with experience on the CDSMP and Stanford's pain program from Denmark. You might be interested to read some of the comments that give additional insights.
http://blog.careum.ch/blog/koproduktion-4/
Here in Switzerland, we also have made first experiences with the Stanford approach leading to a trend for similar outcomes compared to international outcomes. Currently in revision and about to be published soon, I hope.
Btw, besides the Danish Experiences there is also a new blog post on the Stanford Model in Europe. We have also published our implementation and adaption process in BMC Health Serv Res... Best, Joerg