I saw this news come across the wire yesterday from TuDiabetes.
The kit sounds really useful, here is the outline of it:
Written by people who have type 1 diabetes, the Toolkit is an essential “how-to” guidebook about living with the disease. It offers information and advice on a plethora of topics, such as how to deal with the diagnosis and day-to-day management of diabetes, how to tell friends about the disease, and how to juggle the demands of diabetes at work. It describes how diabetes affects physical and psychological health, relationships, and parenting. It gives tips for approaching things like diet, exercise, travel, and work and explains how to educate others about type 1, especially on what to do in emergency situations.
I had a look on the Diabetes NZ site and couldn’t find anything like this… does anyone know if we have anything like this in NZ? I always think it would be great if there were “Diabetes refresher” courses for us (of any age) – things move quite quickly in the diabetes arena and sometimes it’s hard to keep up.
If only we had the JDRF in NZ! Diabetes NZ’s resources are stretched enough as it is.
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Tagged as education, JDRF
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Sianne wrote
I wonder if we can get some of these toolkits?
Yeah I agree Nic. I have always wondered what the newly diagnosed get given in the way of info. I think we all need a refresher every couple of years.
Shannon wrote
Yea, I agree. I still struggle to tell people that I’m diabetic, especially boyfriends and people at work. I recently went to my nurse educater to get my boyfriend educated and it was interesting how she told people but I don’t want to bring in everyone to explain it to them, it would be good to try and learn a way that I can do it confidently and not be hiding it away from people. It is a huge debate with me in when and how to tell people about diabetes
Sarah wrote
That does sound great – so holistic! So often we just focus on that string of test results and dosages at our consultations. It took me years to haphazardly discover that diabetes could affect mental health, sexuality, relationships etc. Also I learned the most about my diabetes when I was pregnant – if I hadn’t gotten pregnant, I would have never figured out how to tightly manage my blood sugars. I say bring it on!!
Nic wrote
Can any of the newly diagnosed fill us in on what sort of info/training you get? I know Sophie took herself off to a DAFNE course for the eating side of things and it sounded fantastic…. I’d love to check it out but it’s five days long which was tricky when working full time and even trickier with a young baby.
Jane wrote
I like this starterkit from http://www.realitycheck.org.au
http://www.realitycheck.org.au/starterkit/
Sophie wrote
Here goes! I was really lucky when I was diagnosed (in early 2008), I was given LOADS of information and support from the Diabetes team at Waikato Hospital – from sessions on carb counting to the “how to’s” of injections and so on. My boyfriend and mum were invited to everything as well, which was useful for all of us. The educators were thorough and knowledgable – I didn’t hear any of the horror stories that some have had to put up with from their specialists/nurses/dieticians. I really feel like the team there had the educating of newbies down to a fine art – for which I was/am extremely grateful! I then moved to Auckland and was lucky enough to be able to take part in DAFNE which was fantastic, and really built on the diabetes management education I had received already. I believe DAFNE should be more widely introduced/available across NZ but I do understand how difficult it is both time-wise and logistically for all involved – course attendees and the medical team that also attend and teach. It is highly worthwhile in terms of gaining a ‘tool-kit’ of diabetes knowledge. I was taught a range of useful theories that actually work which has given me the freedom to (successfully) manage MY diabetes on own.
Saffy wrote
I was pretty excited when I saw this mentioned too
How many Type 1s are there in NZ? Maybe Diabetes NZ could work with the Aussies at JDRF and borrow the IP of their kit for T1s?
As an info source I also rate the Joslin Diabetes Center’s website really highly – their level of T1 specific info is good (and a section for T1 kids too) and they also have a dedicated section for T2s.
But like you say Nic, I guess it all comes down to $ and priorities – and we’re a speck in the sugary ocean.
Aaron wrote
I can’t remember much about when I was diagnosed because I was so young and it was 20 years ago almost (I have enough trouble remembering yesterday to be honest). I think my parents would remember it better but I do remember that the diabetes centre in Chch and diabetes youth in Christchurch were AMAZING.
They were so supportive of my family and I am still friends with them to this day both personally and as a ‘patient’. I was very, very lucky to have access to that even if it was a 2 hour + drive to get there.
When I was about 21, I was also invited to participate in what I think was the pre-cursor to DAFNE which took a group of about 20 diabetics of all ages and taught us about CHO counting, insulin to carb ratios and generally useful info like that. It was run over 8 weeks or so on Tuesday evenings/nights which sovled the kids and work problem for most of us and it was the first step in my properly taking control of my diabetes. I know that course changed a lot of lives at the time including mine so it is definitely a case of good upfront support and then continuous education as well. I don’t know if the CDHB is still doing those courses but I sure hope so.