Diabetes and the press

[AlanJardine]

Just read the Mirror and I am appauled at the way they have been reporting about Alexandra Burke's mother and her diabetes.

On the front page, they mention ''diabetic Melisa", when there is absolutely no connection between that and the news story.

Later on (Page 5) the state that she has 'severe diabetes'. There is no such thing. All types and forms of diabetes are severe. This sort of reporting really annoys me. I had thought this sort of rubbish had stoppped years ago.

I am going to write to the Mirror and to Diabetes UK to complain, and urge as many of you as possible to also do so.

 

[Copepod]

Just looked on Mirror website and found http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news...burke-in-benefit-fraud-probe-115875-21071266/ The real issue may be wrongly claiming Disability Living Allowance - rules are particularly complex when undergoing dialysis under hospital care (as opposed to at home, with help from friend or relative). From the figure ?258 disability living allowance (assuming that is correct), it is difficult to know what combination of higher / medium / lower rate care and higher / lower rate mobility components is being received by Melissa Bell. Also, disability living allowance levels depend not on diagnosis, but on the effects of any conditions - so it might be more correct in this context to say "severely affected by diabetes". However, working is not incompatable with claiming DLA, unless, for example, claiming higher rate mobility on the basis of being virtually unable to walk, while working as a postal delivery officer - on foot.

 

[Northerner]

Yes, similarly in The Sun - 'severe' diabetes. I think it's just a lazy way of reporting that the person sufffers from severe complications due to diabetes - I believe she has suffered kidney failure.

I did notice when reading 'The Discovery of Insulin' that a lot of the early patients are described as having severe diabetes, meaning that they had suffered severe consequences from the disease.

The problem is that, if Joe Public thinks that there is 'severe' diabetes, he probably also imagines that there is such a thing as 'mild' diabetes, which there patently is not!

 

[aymes]

I had a little look online after seeing this and at least on a more positive note I found this article in the Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/d...Alexandras-pop-riches---All-I-want-again.html

where she is talking about her diabetes. For once a pretty well written piece which explains things properly.....

 

[AlanJardine]

The real issue may be wrongly claiming Disability Living Allowance

I don't think it's just the DLA part. If she is being paid for work, she should not be getting full benefits (in my opinion).

My qualm is with the way the link with diabetes reported. It seems to suggest in the article that she is getting DLA based on the fact that she has 'severe diabetes', not that she gets it (rightly or wrongly) for kidney problems.

It's another piece if reporting that mis-informs the public about diabetes and it's effects.

 

[Copepod]

As the case is being investigated by Islington Council, that suggests that the main area of concern is her Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit, both of which are affected by the status (age, in education or working) of anyone else living in the house. While I don't like the expression "severe diabetes", the whole field of benefits is very complex, each with different qualifying periods, characteristics, earning levels etc. It might be interesting to see how this is discussed on kidney patients discussion boards and welfare rights boards, and posting links here so that people can read the whole article and see any photos, BEFORE jumping to comment to editors.

 

[AlanJardine]

Sorry, Copepod, I think you are missing my point. I'm not arguing about the story or benefit rules. I am more concerned about the poor reporting with regards to the way diabetes was mentioned.

 

[stute]

Diabetes is a chronic illness which affects people at different stages in their lives.

 

[katie]

I hate it when they say "servere diabetes" they obviously have no clue, they could do SOME research. My old boss said "do you have to inject? ooh you've got it bad". haha oh dear.

This reminds me though... I saw the full 'change4life' advert yesterday and they said "can cause type 2 diabetes" yay.

 

[Caroline]

I think the press will grab anything that makes news selling headlines. For this reason I rarely buy newspapers.

There are often misleading headlines giving false hope to millions. When there is a cure, we will hear the news in places like this first...

 

[sofaraway]

I think people with diabetes also contirbute to the problem by describing themselves in this way, also when people call themselves a 'brittle diabetic' which implies that they have diabetes worse than others.

 

[Copepod]

I've always understood "brittle" as a fairly specific medical term, meaning poorly or inadequately controlled, and can refer to diabetes or asthma, in particular. Lots of people use "chronic" to mean serious, when actually it means long-lasting, in contrast to "acute", which means a shorter episode of a condition eg an infection or an exacerbation of a long standing problem eg flare up of choronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD).

 

[sofaraway]

I thought that brittle was an old term (in that I don't see it being used at all) that was used for as you say poorly controlled. But more as a reason why someone couldn't get control of their diabetes, rather than simply the fact that it was uncontrolled.

"some people believe they have been cursed with 'brittle diabetes' because their blood sugars rise and fall more than is typical of other people, leaving them frequently out of control. wide fluctuations like this are unnecesarry. fluctuating blood sugars indicate thats insulin doses are not matched to need. 'brittle diabetes' can be eliminated by taking advantage of the equiptment and knowledge avaliable today and taking the time to learn how to adjust insulin doses" John Walsh 'Using Insulin'.

 

[Caroline]

The only place medically Ihave heard the term brittle being used is brittle bone disease where the bones break easily.

In more general terms I know the word brittle when applied to other objects means they are more breakable or fragile than normal.

 

[mikep1979]

sofaraway i am a diabetic who has wild fluctuations in his diabetes for no reason at all. i also have good control over it as i can have a week of "perfect" bg levels. the wild swings are not put down to stress or anything else by my consultant and dn they say it is just how my diabetes is going and they are looking into ways we can minimise these swings (they go from breakfast of 4.0 to lunch at 22.6 and then back down for dinner to 5.8 and then supper down to 1.1). i am not a brittle diabetic and i will never call myself one either. i am a diabetic who has control of his diabetes but for some reason who's sugars tend to do as they please. as for my insulin dose's if i up them i go hypo when i have these swings so everyone is at a loss to understand this. so for now i have to live with it. the news article was very very poorly written by someone who doesn't even have a basic understanding of diabetes. i think we should all along with diabetes uk put together a letter and complain to the standards agency's and to the editor in chief also regarding the way they have reported this story and ask them to either print a retraction or to write a competent article to outline what diabetes is and what people go through everyday when living with it.