hanadr
Expert
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- soaps on telly and people talking about the characters as if they were real.
Our PCT held a diabetes even today, which I attended. there were sevral organisations represented and the speakers were mercifully brief. We had a session to collect ideas for what we wanteed from the PCt and HCP.
It was surprisingly consistent throughout the 12 groups. People wanted correct information,consistency in information and care. Access to courses( only available to newly diagnosed T2s at the moment and most knew nothing about them.)
there were some more altruistic requests too
like support for housebound people and non-english speakers.
the most valuable thing was chatting to other people. I talked to one woman, who is on the verge of switching from tablets to insulin, because she can't get BG below double figures and is worried about weight gain.
No one had suggested to her that she change her diet to get control. I talked to her about reducing carbs and immediately someone else came along and told her that carbs are essential. I asked them to refer me to the reseaarch which shows this, and of course they couldn't. She said she'd try the reduced carb approach There were representatives of a research group there, who agreed that we can do without carbs.
Most people didn't know what HbA1c is let alone thier own numbers. The doctor, who asked the group for hand up who knows their numbers, ( including cholesterol and blood pressure) veryf few hands went up. He was talking about target HbA1c of 7.5%. Apparently only half the diabetics in this area achieve it.. For children, the ratio is worse.
Naturallythose who know their numbers taked about them. I think I was the only one in single figures.
I left one of our Diabetes.co.uk posters out.
It was surprisingly consistent throughout the 12 groups. People wanted correct information,consistency in information and care. Access to courses( only available to newly diagnosed T2s at the moment and most knew nothing about them.)
there were some more altruistic requests too
like support for housebound people and non-english speakers.
the most valuable thing was chatting to other people. I talked to one woman, who is on the verge of switching from tablets to insulin, because she can't get BG below double figures and is worried about weight gain.
No one had suggested to her that she change her diet to get control. I talked to her about reducing carbs and immediately someone else came along and told her that carbs are essential. I asked them to refer me to the reseaarch which shows this, and of course they couldn't. She said she'd try the reduced carb approach There were representatives of a research group there, who agreed that we can do without carbs.
Most people didn't know what HbA1c is let alone thier own numbers. The doctor, who asked the group for hand up who knows their numbers, ( including cholesterol and blood pressure) veryf few hands went up. He was talking about target HbA1c of 7.5%. Apparently only half the diabetics in this area achieve it.. For children, the ratio is worse.
Naturallythose who know their numbers taked about them. I think I was the only one in single figures.
I left one of our Diabetes.co.uk posters out.
