Self-care to be promoted at conference
Structured education is the only “long-term answer” available to the NHS in meeting the challenge posed by the increase in prevalence of Type 2 diabetes, the Director of DESMOND has said.
Bernie Stribling said structured education programmes are a proven method to enable supported self-care in diabetes.
She said: “With diabetes prevalence continuing to rise, the NHS is faced with a huge challenge. We believe structured diabetes education is the only long-term answer.
“People with diabetes have a demanding condition to manage, yet on average they see a healthcare professional for an hour a year only. One hour of support out of a total of 8,766 to help them manage a condition which, if neglected, could lead to blindness, a lost limb or an increased risk of a stroke or heart attack. That’s 525,900 minutes that a person is left alone to manage their condition.”
Bernie was speaking ahead of the Diabetes UK Professional Conference 2015, which takes place between March 11 and 13, where DESMOND will be joining forces with fellow national programmes DAFNE, the Year of Care and X-PERT as part of the Self-Care Village.
Bernie is urging delegates to visit the village to find out more about the benefits of self-management and structured education.
Representatives from the programmes will be taking part in a workshop called ‘Self-care: whose diabetes is it anyway?’ taking place on the Friday, between 1.15pm and 2.45pm in rooms 3 and 4. The programme includes:
1.15pm ‘A case for change’
Lindsay Oliver, North Shields
1.35pm ‘Theories around self-management and how people learn’
Yvonne Doherty, Leicester
1.50pm ‘Quality assurance’
Suzanne Lucas, London, and Sally Woolgar, Scarborough
2.40 Questions
There will also be a treasure hunt taking place across all four stands with a bottle of champagne up for grabs.
DESMOND is the collaborative name for a family of group self-management education modules, toolkits and care pathways for people with, or at risk of, Type 2 diabetes.
The DESMOND Programme offers training and quality assurance for healthcare professionals and lay educators to deliver any of the DESMOND modules and toolkits to people in their communities.
Most programmes are delivered in a group to increase healthcare professional contact time and also encourage positive interactions between group members. There are agreed criteria on what constitutes structured education, which include an underpinning philosophy, being evidence-based, using a structured curriculum, being delivered by trained educators and being quality assured, with an ongoing programme to audit outcomes.