This week is National Diabetes Week (10-16 July), and the theme is ‘Heads Up on Diabetes’, with a focus on diabetes-related stigma.
Diabetes is a serious complex condition that can affect the entire body, impacting quality of life and reducing life expectancy. It requires daily self-care and management, which can be demanding and may affect a person’s physical and emotional health.
According to Diabetes Australia, four out of five people with diabetes have experienced stigma at some point. This may result in people disengaging from their healthcare and their diabetes management, not sharing their diagnosis, and not getting the help and support they need.
Michelle Gribble, Nurse Manager of the Diabetes Unit and Diabetes Educator, outlines the ongoing challenges some people with diabetes face on a regular basis.
“We have many patients tell us about their experiences, and how the language used by others can impact their daily lives and ultimately how they manage their diabetes,” she says.
“These experiences include being made to feel self-conscious, judged about what they eat, shamed about their appearance, made to feel uncomfortable about how they manage their insulin requirements or told they are ‘faking it’. It is important we address the challenges of those people living with diabetes and change our conversations to reduce stigma,” she explains.
National Diabetes Week provides the perfect opportunity to have a positive conversation to address the impact that diabetes stigma can have on a person’s mental and emotional wellbeing.
Change the conversation
In a healthcare setting or service, our language and how we communicate with and about people with diabetes can affect our patients’ journeys, from diagnosis to ongoing care.
The 2021 Diabetes Australia ‘Language Matters Position Statement’ highlights the importance of encouraging all health care professionals to work with people with diabetes.
This week, we encourage our employees to reflect on the language used for and about diabetes. Simple changes to our language, phrases and words can make an enormous difference in the lives of our diabetes community and have flow-on for continuity of care and a person’s willingness to adopt behaviour change strategies.
So, let’s change the conversation by making a few simple modifications:
| Try… | Instead of… |
| ‘Person’, ‘Person with diabetes’ or ‘Person living with diabetes’ | Diabetic, Sufferer, Patient, Consumer |
| Person without diabetes | Normal, Non-diabetic, Healthy (person) |
| ‘Finding it difficult’, ‘Has other priorities right now’ | Difficult/challenging patient, in denial, unmotivated |
| Condition | Disease |
| Words that describe collaboration or doing specific behaviours, for example, ‘taking medication’, ‘checking glucose levels’ |
Adherence/ compliance |
| Manage glucose levels
Within/outside target range |
Control (referring to diabetes, HbA1c or glucose level), for example, poor control, good control |
| Check(ing), monitor(ing) glucose | Test, testing (glucose) |
| Managing diabetes | Treating diabetes, treating patients |
Meet our team
Our Diabetes Education team will be available this week in our health promotion areas of Monash Medical Centre and Dandenong Hospital, between 10am to 12pm daily to provide staff, patients, and families with resources to educate them about the early signs of developing type 2 diabetes and the possible impacts to a person’s wellbeing.
Learn more about the programs the Monash Health Diabetes team has available to ensure our patients receive the ongoing care they need.
Approved by: Anjali Dhulia