Jean Langford, a member of the International Diabetes Federation Europe’s YOURAH network, says one- size- fits all care for diabetes is not a solution.
Langford, who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 11, says her family knew the seriousness of diabetes only too well, as her grandfather and her uncle had lived with the disease. For them, life had involved a strict and inflexible regime without the technology and treatments available today.
As the world observes World Diabetes Day this week, Langford sheds light into this condition that kills millions of people around the world.
“I, too, was supposed to follow a one-size-fits-all insulin regime – textbook diabetes care as opposed to tailored care that addressed my actual needs in day-to-day life.
I had no idea how to manage it well or adapt it to my life,” Langford explains. “My parents tried to keep things as normal as possible and I was adventurous.
“However, I was often unwell, being either very high or very low. I was given very little information about how everything worked, even though it was my mum and I who were making the daily decisions on my insulin doses. I feel as if we weren’t trusted with the information to make informed dosing decisions. Diabetes education would have made so much of a difference.”
Langford now has an insulin pump, which delivers short-acting insulin every few minutes in tiny amounts. Inspired by the care she experienced, she is now in
Edinburgh training to be a dietitian in Scotland’s National Health Service.
Her advice to health-care professionals is simple:
“The first step when they talk to people with diabetes should be to ask them how they currently feel about their diabetes, and how they would actually like to feel.
“This could lay the foundation of someone’s care plan. Ask if they need psychological help, and if technology is working for them. This is important because so many factors affect your blood sugar levels and the stress this cause affects how much you can care for yourself.”
She also emphasises the importance of ongoing innovation. “People use diabetes technology to live with diabetes; for people to actually live better, individual needs must be considered. One size doesn’t fit all. – www.who.int
