Diabetes education is an essential part of good blood sugar control, and avoiding long-term healthcare complications.
For each individual, there is a vast amount of condition-specific information necessary for successful diabetes management.
What type of diabetes education is available?
People with diabetes need to know what to do if something goes wrong, how to adjust their diet, exercise, lifestyle, medication or insulin.
A range of diabetes education programmes now exist in the UK, including DAFNE, DESMOND and X-PERT. These diabetes courses are structured to empower diabetes patients to manage their own condition successfully.
Which diabetes course you enrol on may depend on which type of diabetes you have, how recently you have been diagnosed, and your current management approach.
There are bespoke education courses for type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, newly diagnosed diabetics and those using insulin pumps.
How do I get enrolled onto structured diabetes education?
NICE recommends that every newly diagnosed diabetes patient should be given the opportunity to get diabetes training, and most patients agree that they need help to manage their condition.
Despite the NICE recommendations, data from charity Diabetes UK shows that only a small number of newly diagnosed patients are provided with a place on a diabetes education course.
If you are interested in taking part in structured diabetes training, speak to your GP, diabetes specialist nurse or diabetes consultant. You may need to wait for an available slot but the NICE guidelines state that you should be offered the chance to go onto a course if you have not done so already.
If you have previously attended a structured education course a number of years ago but feel you would benefit from refreshing your knowledge, most GPs should be happy to help you enroll onto a course.
Education for insulin users and non-insulin users
The course you get enrolled onto may depend on what courses are running in your area. Whilst there are differences between some of the diabetes courses available, many of the courses share similarities in their approach and the knowledge provided.
For non-insulin users, such as people with type 2 diabetes that have been recently diagnosed, the DESMOND course is one of the courses that is highly recommended.
The X-PERT course has been designed to be appropriate for people with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
The DAFNE course has been specifically designed towards insulin management for people with type 1 diabetes
Structured diabetes education courses are usually highly regarded by people with diabetes that have attended them and can contribute to improved HbA1c results, fewer episodes of too high or low blood glucose levels, improved confidence in controlling one’s health and better quality of life.
