Poll: Which diabetes course(s) have you attended?

Hi I went on the Desmond Day Care Course weeks ago, informative. I agree with the post of LoLPer above. Good luck

Hi I went on the Desmond Day Care Course weeks ago, informative. I agree with the post of LoLPer above. Good luck

Hello. I am type 2 and have never been offered any courses.

I was diagnosed type 2 end of December controlling with lchf diet have lost 3 stone and still losing. Blood down to 5 and 6s from 18s Desmond course booked in for a few weeks time. Hopefully will be useful.

Jacfburcham said:

I was diagnosed type 2 end of December controlling with lchf diet have lost 3 stone and still losing. Blood down to 5 and 6s from 18s Desmond course booked in for a few weeks time. Hopefully will be useful.

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Good luck

Booked on a DESMOND course Saturday 16th April. Have done online diabetes.co.uk course on website. Feedback from DESMOND once I've completed the course.

IDiagnosed type 2 - 08 Feb 2016
HBA1C 08 Feb 2016 - 128
BG 08 Feb 2016 - 27.8 mmol/L
BG 29 Mar 2016 - 6.1 mmol/L

I did the dafne course when i was pregnant fantastic course massively improved my diabetic control and still has to this day I took a weeks annual leave to do this course and it was worth it x

Attended Desmond course last week, found some bits useful. However, will not be following their advice about eating carbs with every meal. People were really asking for advice and they were told it's an individual thing as we all have different requirements.

Administrator said:

This month we're taking a look at structured diabetes education courses in the UK and how well they work.

Have you taken one since you were diagnosed? If so, how helpful did you find it, if at all?

If you haven't taken any courses - is that because you've never been offered a place, or because you just felt like you didn't need it?

Would you recommend the course(s) to any of your friends if they were to get diagnosed with diabetes?

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Hiya, I was diagnosed in May 2012 when something growing inside me smashed through my sciatic nerve and I went off to spend 6 weeks in hospital. One of the first things they did was check my blood sugar, 22.6,and informed me I was type 2 diabetic. Bit of a shock but hey ho life goes on, my doctor recommended I attend a Desmond course. I went along thinking this was going to be a load of old rubbish dictating to me how I would have to live with the diabetes! How wrong could I have been, the course was very informative and relaxed to the point of actually being fun, no one dictated anything to me quite the opposite. I left the course feeling a lot better about my diagnosis and believing I could cope with the changes I needed to make to my lifestyle. And now four years on I'm no longer on metformin and down to 4.8.
Would I recommend the Desmond course?
Most definitely, it changed my life by helping me deal with diabetes.

Hi, first post since being diagnosed in 1980, since then I have been unable to find out if I am T1 or T2!! I tend to go along with the assumption that I am T1, I have never been offered any courses by either GP, DN at my surgery or Specialist Diabetic nurse clinics attended over the years, I think my area is poorly served by Diabetic services.
I have Diabetic retinopathy, CKD, Heart Problems and CHRONIC Peripheral Neuropathy which gives sleepless nights which does'nt help good BG control.

But after all this I can still get out of bed in the morning ( that saying I've gone in the first place )

Type 1.5 for the last 12 years and my GP/diabetes nurse have never mentioned any courses - didn't know they existed!

Type 1 for almost 6 years now. Managed to get on the DAFNE course after a 2 year waiting list. Definitely worth it. I loved it. One of the main things I loved was meeting other type 1s in the flesh.

I did the DAFNE course. It was excellent. Would recommend it. Also there are refresher day courses for if you need reminding about anything you may have forgotten. It changed the way I looked at food and gave me info on how to look after myself when I'll.

I went to FEFI - Flexible Eating Flexible Insulin - run by the diabetes clinic designed by diabetic nurses and dietitian - similar to DAFNE.

We had a session each week for 4 weeks - homework given after each session. It was really helpful! Having a week between each session was great as I could try things out and then the following week we could discussion what had worked or not etc. The course was very practical and informative. It is really worth gaining the knowledge

Clearly I am in an area that does help out significantly with 'our kind' in that in the last 10 weeks (the time since being 'labelled') I have attended a Retinopathy appt, my first meeting with a Dietician, and booked onto a Desmond course, not to mention 2 meetings with my practice nurse - I cannot fault their care and attention, and they fully acknowledge I am still struggling (emotionally) to come to terms with this. For the Desmond course I was offered a number of alternative dates and venues to attend, and booked on to one within 3 weeks - so no complaints here (well only a minor one- they are all weekday courses!)
I am going with a complete open mind, understanding there are those on here who deride anything other than an LCHF approach and HCPs who do not support it. Equally I see those 'on the other side' who advocate the NHS approach. I am still VERY confused with conflicting opinion and advice. I kind of hope the NHS approach is right as it seems less rigid / disciplined than LCHF - but I need convincing- either way. I intend to raise LCHF as a question to guage their response.
I suspect there will be a degree of very basic 'stuff' they will impart, and am a tad nervous at sitting in a room for the first time with others like me! We have been told to make our own lunch arrangements so am sure everyone will be very interested to see what everyone else is eating!
As ever my wonderful wife who has been by my side - literally and metaphorically since the beginning of my journey will also give another day and will come with me on this course, as she has so far for other appts etc - I have said this before, she really is one in a million and I really would not have made it this far without her.
I will let you know how I get on.

Administrator said:

... we're taking a look at structured diabetes education courses in the UK and how well they work.

Click to expand...

https://www.theguardian.com/society...-on-managing-diabetes-benefiting-few-patients

Heretic1 said:

Clearly I am in an area that does help out significantly with 'our kind' in that in the last 10 weeks (the time since being 'labelled') I have attended a Retinopathy appt, my first meeting with a Dietician, and booked onto a Desmond course, not to mention 2 meetings with my practice nurse - I cannot fault their care and attention, and they fully acknowledge I am still struggling (emotionally) to come to terms with this. For the Desmond course I was offered a number of alternative dates and venues to attend, and booked on to one within 3 weeks - so no complaints here (well only a minor one- they are all weekday courses!)
I am going with a complete open mind, understanding there are those on here who deride anything other than an LCHF approach and HCPs who do not support it. Equally I see those 'on the other side' who advocate the NHS approach. I am still VERY confused with conflicting opinion and advice. I kind of hope the NHS approach is right as it seems less rigid / disciplined than LCHF - but I need convincing- either way. I intend to raise LCHF as a question to guage their response.
I suspect there will be a degree of very basic 'stuff' they will impart, and am a tad nervous at sitting in a room for the first time with others like me! We have been told to make our own lunch arrangements so am sure everyone will be very interested to see what everyone else is eating!
As ever my wonderful wife who has been by my side - literally and metaphorically since the beginning of my journey will also give another day and will come with me on this course, as she has so far for other appts etc - I have said this before, she really is one in a million and I really would not have made it this far without her.
I will let you know how I get on.

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Well I attended yesterday and on tbh in the main personally I didn't get a great deal from it having taken the trouble to educate myself previously - but I guess did confirm what I did know! I know there were others there who obviously didn't know very much and probably benefitted, and one poor old lady who had only had her diagnosis with not much more last week - and she was like a very upset Rabbit in the headlights!
The 'memsahib' who did come with me found it very informative - and asked more questions than I did!
In some ways it has added to the confusion on what I am / am not able to eat, and it was disappointing that there was no nutritionalist there - which apparently there should have been.
I did raise LCHF and monitoring, and there was a gentleman there who already did this - several times she used the term 'I can only quote what the NHS guidelines are' which led me to think she didn't agree with them - but darent step out of line. She did talk about the effect of different foods on BS levels, but wasn't specific, and there were no values on the graphs she showed.
The mantra on 'sugary stuff' was reduce it gradually rather than eradicate completely - but I guess given the audience this would have probably been more of an acceptable and palatable step change than STOP now!
It was funny at lunchtime to see people coming back from the shops with white baguettes, munching away on bags of mini cheddars and biscuits! .... The memsahib and I were sat there with out Tuna salad and an apple! Incidentally we didn't cover diet etc til the afternoon!
There was Tea and Coffee provided, but could not believe there were sachets of sugar provided, and I had to ask if they had any sweetners - which they then produced .... very bizarre!
Having spent over 6 hours sat in a quite warm room - according to my Fitbit, it is the most inactive day I have spent in over 6 weeks!
Conclusion: probably useful at the beginning if you haven't been briefed or taken the trouble to read all the other info provided on 'it'.

I went on an X-PERT course last summer, two or three months after my T2 diagnosis and it helped me a lot. It taught me a lot of basic understanding of what T2 is and why I need to take this seriously. It has also made me re-think my diet. I thought my wholefood sort of diet was a pretty healthy one, but I've taken on board the fact that T2 needs something a bit different. Gradually I've moved onto a diet with far lower carb levels.

Looking back, I'd have loved some sort of follow-up system of support and encouragement. My annual review is in fact only coming up 16 months after the original diagnosis - I moved and changed GPs, and the new one seemed to have no record of me needing one!

After 12 years with T1, I went on a Freedom4Life course. It was too late for me to learn anything but worthwhile as it was a prerequisite to being put on the pump waiting list - I guess it was showing I had commitment and proving I understood carb counting.