Diabetes, My Healthcare Team and Me

We invited the diabetes community to an evening of debate and discussion with healthcare professionals and people living with diabetes, designed to bring you together around shared experiences and to explore ways you can create and maintain good relationships and work in partnership. 

How to prepare for a diabetes appointment

Dr Emma Wilmot and FreeStyle Libre Ambassador, Jasmine Jaffar, who lives with Type 1 Diabetes, talked about how to prepare for an appointment with your healthcare professional. They also shared what can make appointments challenging from both points of view, and how to address these challenges.

Some of their tips for preparing for a diabetes appointment included:

-  Think ahead: Take the time to think about where you are now, what’s working, what’s not and where you would like to be.

-  Write a list and bring it with you: Your appointments can go very fast. Making a list can help you get the most out of your consultation and save you forgetting something important.

-  Have the data ready: If you’re using glucose sensing tech, have your readings ready to share at your diabetes appointment. These can help inform your discussions and give your healthcare team a better overall view of how you’re doing.

-  Open up: Remember, your diabetes journey isn’t just about the data. Your healthcare teams are there to support both your physical and mental health, so don’t be afraid to tell them if you’re struggling emotionally.

-  Ask questions: Your healthcare appointments are a safe space to raise anything and everything that’s on your mind. No matter what stage of your diabetes journey you’re on, no question is ever too small if it helps you understand and manage your diabetes better.

When asked what additional support they would like from their healthcare teams, 32% of attendees who took part in the polls said information about technology options, 19% wanted more emotional support and 19% said food advice.

Personal experiences with healthcare professionals

Our first video segment saw FreeStyle Libre Ambassadors Daniel Newman, living with Type 1 Diabetes, and Ken Tait living with Type 2 Diabetes, sharing the similarities and differences in their journeys with healthcare professionals.

Comparing their experiences, they talked about the importance of having a positive and open relationship with your healthcare teams. This was a feeling echoed by Professor Deborah Christie, championing the need for both people living with diabetes and their healthcare teams to strive for equality in the relationship to make each meeting as valuable as possible. 

When asked about their experience of working with a diabetes team, 28% of attendees who took part in the polls said they’d had an amazing experience, 43% said it was average, and 30% said it was not always what they needed. 

Balancing the relationship

The take-home from the wider panel discussion was the importance of finding balance in your relationship with your healthcare team.

While your healthcare professionals have valuable expertise in diabetes management, every person living with diabetes is different and so are their needs – both physical and emotional. Sometimes emotional wellbeing or even nutritional wellbeing are more important during a diabetes consultation than analysing the data. As a person living with diabetes, you should never feel afraid to lead the discussion away from the numbers. After all, your healthcare teams aren’t just there to talk about graphs and glucose levels, they’re there to help empower you to live as freely as possible. This means it’s important for both you and your healthcare professional to be prepared and ready to talk openly and honestly, asking questions and sharing your personal challenges. This teamwork can help make your care more tailored to you, and ultimately help in managing your diabetes for the long-term.

Our panel also urged people living with diabetes not to feel that they need to stick with their current healthcare team if they don’t feel it’s working. There are plenty of options out there, so don’t be afraid to explore alternatives to find the relationship that works for you. 

When attendees were asked what their one wish from their healthcare teams would be, 30% of those who answered said being given access to the tech they need, 26% wished it was easier to get an appointment, and 16% wanted to feel better understood. 

Opening the conversation

For the final part of the evening, host Poorna opened the floor to live questions, giving listeners the chance to ask their questions directly to the expert panellists.

Questions included queries around access to diabetes technology, women’s hormones, tips for dealing with burnout and managing diabetes with a gluten intolerance.

If you missed the Diabetes, My Healthcare Team and Me event, click here to watch the recording. And you can always find support and shared experiences on the Abbott FreeStyle Libre blog.