Hi all! :)

[everydayupsanddowns]

Gosh is it really 42?! that's so many! I've been given a 400 word limit so I don't think I'll be able to include all of them- but I will definitely include a few of them.

I’m not sure it was meant to be anexhaustive list, but these are the ones the folks at Diatribe put together

Thread '42 Factors that affect BG'

Jan 27, 2020

A useful list for when you're making that 'piece of cake' calculation 🙂



ETA: Article about the table:

https://diatribe.org/42factors

• Northerner
• Replies: 36
• Forum: General Message Board

• 

Good luck putting your piece together @lauramwatt

I think it would be nice to include something anti-stigma. So much media coverage either blatantly or subtly blames those being diagnosed with diabetes as having ‘brought it on themselves’ and ‘bankrupting the NHS’, when in reality it is a lot more complex and nuanced than that. No one sets out to give themselves diabetes, and there are significant genetic, environmental, and socio-economic factors which mean that two people can make exactly the same choices, one will quickly develop diabetes, and the other never will.

 

[CliffH]

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all having a lovely day so far.

I recently took part in the CHOICE course, and I found out about this forum through that. I've been diabetic for quite a while, and it's lovely to know that there's a group of people here that are going through the same/similar things. Diabetes can be a little lonely sometimes, so I'm really excited to be part of this.

I don't have any questions to start with, but I was wondering if any of you could offer me some insight? I work in HR, and closely with our Head of EDI, and I've been asked to write a piece on Diabetes awareness for World Diabetes Day (nov 14th). I want to write a bit about my experience, and resources we have available for those at our company, but I was wondering if any of you have any ideas for what I should include? I was thinking some links also (to Diabetes UK and a link to the Diabetes NHS health check). If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Thank you 🙂

I'm a Clinical Psychologist (although not in the field of diabetes) and have Late Onset Type 1. I'd be delighted to help your organisation in any way I can (for free, of course!) with thinking in more detail about how to support people with the psychological impact of all forms of diabetes. Alternatively, I'd be happy to reach out for you to colleagues who do specialise in diabetes.

 

[lauramwatt]

Happy to send you a couple of sheets of these that I use when doing presentations if you would like that.

That would be really helpful if you could! Thank you 🙂

 

[lauramwatt]

being as it's employment related - you'd do well to ensure you include the orrible effect of stress and also the brain recovery time from hypos.

yes I really wanted to look at it from a wellbeing perspective, as this is definitely my experience with having diabetes day-to-day. Such an important point that is often overlooked. Thank you 🙂

 

[lauramwatt]

I often listen to jen greives type 1 on 1 podcasts and the late michael mosley podcasts while i'm cooking , don't know if you have ever listened to them b4 , but very good when it comes to managing this day to day any little bit of advice is good and ill take advice where i can , as someone that is living with type 1 can you give any tips , if you could share one thing what would it be ?

I've never listened to a diabetes-related podcast! That sounds really helpful- I'll definitely check that out, thank you 🙂 Oooo as far as advice goes...it's really simple but I think for me having a person to talk to about my diabetes day to day is really important. Nowadays, I discuss my diabetes often with my partner, but when I was growing up I wasn't really encouraged by my parents to speak openly about it...it created an air of shame and embarrassment. I think that's the main thing I want to stress in my written piece- the benefits of being about to speak to your manager or a team member about your conditions and how stress-relieving that can be. I've worked 5 jobs in my life so far, and this is actually the firs job where I've actually told my manager that I'm diabetic and it's been really helpful for me to do so. A lot of people don't have good experiences with their management, which is a massive shame, but I'm lucky that my manager is really supportive and takes a very active interest in wellbeing. Working in HR, I really hope this is the standard for how managers support their teams in the present and future.

 

[lauramwatt]

Hi @lauramwatt - welcome and good luck with writing your piece for World Diabetes Day - it's great that your company are taking this seriously - as you only have 400 words I would definitely focus on the myths surrounding Diabetes and the mental strain, rather than the physical facts/complications (unless you have enough words left!) - you'll find plenty of inspiration from looking at this forum

Thanks so much for your ideas! I've written a draft and it's currently at 500 words (I think they'll let me post something a little longer haha). I've actually had a lot of fun researching all the myths that are involved. It amazes me that I've been diabetic so long and there are still ones I've never heard of. And yes the mental strain is quite a big focus of the piece so far- as I think it's a largely overlooked part of having any long-term condition. And yes people on the forum have been very helpful so far- so many ideas! thank you 🙂

 

[lauramwatt]

Brilliant! In terms of supporting people in your (or any) organisation who are diabetic or who have diabetic family members, I think it's important to not overlook the psychological impact of diabetes - at whatever stage the individual is at. As an example (I suggest) of how not to do it, when I was diagnosed out of the blue and told my line manager that I might at some point need some reasonable adjustments, that person said to me, "Well, if you go blind, we'll buy you a special computer".

In your situation I'd want to focus on psychological issues such as possible grief reactions, which can of course occur at any point during a person's diabetic 'journey'.

Thank you so much for sharing your insight Cliff! I agree 100%- the psychological impact is something I'm largely focusing on.

As a person who works in HR, it horrifies me to hear that a manager said that to you!! I hope this type of thing happens less and less nowadays, but I do still hear stories...there's a minimum level of empathy that a manager requires and some people just don't have it.
Oh the grief reactions point is interesting- I'll definitely look more into that, thank you 🙂

 

[lauramwatt]

I'm a Clinical Psychologist (although not in the field of diabetes) and have Late Onset Type 1. I'd be delighted to help your organisation in any way I can (for free, of course!) with thinking in more detail about how to support people with the psychological impact of all forms of diabetes. Alternatively, I'd be happy to reach out for you to colleagues who do specialise in diabetes.

oh amazing! Thank you so much 🙂 I don't actually think we have any people in our org that "specialise" in diabetes...i think (as I'm writing this piece), I will be the org expert for the timebeing haha. I am actually also a part of a staff social group that focus on disability awareness, so it may be useful to have you as a contact for articles or events we may do in the future?

 

[lauramwatt]

I’m not sure it was meant to be anexhaustive list, but these are the ones the folks at Diatribe put together

Thread '42 Factors that affect BG'

Jan 27, 2020

A useful list for when you're making that 'piece of cake' calculation 🙂



ETA: Article about the table:

https://diatribe.org/42factors

• Northerner
• Replies: 36
• Forum: General Message Board

• 

Good luck putting your piece together @lauramwatt

I think it would be nice to include something anti-stigma. So much media coverage either blatantly or subtly blames those being diagnosed with diabetes as having ‘brought it on themselves’ and ‘bankrupting the NHS’, when in reality it is a lot more complex and nuanced than that. No one sets out to give themselves diabetes, and there are significant genetic, environmental, and socio-economic factors which mean that two people can make exactly the same choices, one will quickly develop diabetes, and the other never will.

Thanks Mike- wow that is quite a list! But knowing how turbulent my blood sugar level can be at times, I'm not surprised to see a list so long haha thank you so much for sharing that 🙂

Some points about anti-stigma is a really great idea, and I guess it goes hand-in-hand with probably a lot of the myths that exist too. You're absolutely right. From my field research (asking my cowokers what they actually know about diabetes) people only seemed to know about type 2- concerning what causes it and who it tends to affect- but the knowledge of type 1 was really lacking. So explaining that is definitely something I've tried to do 🙂 thank you so much for your ideas!

 

[CliffH]

oh amazing! Thank you so much 🙂 I don't actually think we have any people in our org that "specialise" in diabetes...i think (as I'm writing this piece), I will be the org expert for the timebeing haha. I am actually also a part of a staff social group that focus on disability awareness, so it may be useful to have you as a contact for articles or events we may do in the future?

Definitely: just let me know if I can be of help in any way.

 

[lauramwatt]

Hi everyone!

As you all helped me so much with this article, I'm eager to share what was published with you here (hopefully you can see the pictures, as I can't send a link as it's on a private staff intranet page).

Sadly I had to cut out quite a few details, as I was greatly limited by the wordcount. I did also include a few links at the bottom, with links to this forum, other types of diabetes (as I only had the words to cover T1 & T2), and other resources.

The aim was to make it as accessible for non-diabetics are possible.
The response was really good! A lot of people reacted/commented on it- so I'm really happy about how it was received 🙂
P.S. there are a few spelling mistakes I didn't catch (ugh) so please ignore them :')




@Anna DUK I know you wanted to see this, so please check it out

 

[Anna DUK]

Hi everyone!

As you all helped me so much with this article, I'm eager to share what was published with you here (hopefully you can see the pictures, as I can't send a link as it's on a private staff intranet page).

Sadly I had to cut out quite a few details, as I was greatly limited by the wordcount. I did also include a few links at the bottom, with links to this forum, other types of diabetes (as I only had the words to cover T1 & T2), and other resources.

The aim was to make it as accessible for non-diabetics are possible.
The response was really good! A lot of people reacted/commented on it- so I'm really happy about how it was received 🙂
P.S. there are a few spelling mistakes I didn't catch (ugh) so please ignore them :')

View attachment 32590
View attachment 32591

@Anna DUK I know you wanted to see this, so please check it out

Hi @lauramwatt, what a touching tribute. Congratulations on a wonderful piece, very beautifully written. I'm so pleased to hear your work, not only gave you the opportunity, but appreciated the output too. Thanks for sharing it with us here, oh and for plugging the forum too!

 

[CliffH]

Hi everyone!

As you all helped me so much with this article, I'm eager to share what was published with you here (hopefully you can see the pictures, as I can't send a link as it's on a private staff intranet page).

Sadly I had to cut out quite a few details, as I was greatly limited by the wordcount. I did also include a few links at the bottom, with links to this forum, other types of diabetes (as I only had the words to cover T1 & T2), and other resources.

The aim was to make it as accessible for non-diabetics are possible.
The response was really good! A lot of people reacted/commented on it- so I'm really happy about how it was received 🙂
P.S. there are a few spelling mistakes I didn't catch (ugh) so please ignore them :')

View attachment 32590
View attachment 32591

@Anna DUK I know you wanted to see this, so please check it out

Fantastic! Great work

 

[mashedupmatt]

Brilliant @lauramwatt and well done for fitting so much in with such a restrictive word count - beautifully written, and from the heart

 

[goodybags]

Fantastic work @lauramwatt I’m sure your article will raise awareness to some of the staff their families and friends both within and outside the organisation that your supporting