The Link: Vol 12 No 4

New diabetes education tool launched at Diabetes UK
Diabetes UK has been working in collaboration with Healthy Interactions Inc. (Healthyi) to develop the Diabetes Conversation Map programme – a new education tool designed to help people with type 2 diabetes effectively self-manage their condition.

The Conversation Map programme consists of four unique 3’x5’ tabletop visuals, which healthcare professionals trained to facilitate the programme use to guide groups of three to ten people with diabetes through an illustrative journey which encompasses images, questions and facts, encouraging lively discussion and participation. Each Conversation Map tool comes with a detailed facilitator guide and takes up to 2 hours to complete.

Twenty-one, free, three-hour training sessions for healthcare professionals will be available across the UK from June to December 2008 and more training sessions are scheduled for 2009 and 2010. Following training, healthcare professionals will receive their own Diabetes Conversation Map programme kit free of charge and continued support from Healthyi will be available.  Further information on training can be requested via the Healthyi website (www.healthyi.co.uk).

The UK is the first country to roll out the programme, apart from the US and Canada, where over 10000 healthcare professionals have already been trained.

Sarah Milsom, Diabetes UK

Type 2 diabetes DVD vouchers
Diabetes UK is piloting a voucher scheme to give people with type 2 diabetes a free starter pack containing a DVD and a leaflet.

Over the next six months, 54 diabetes specialist nurses and practice nurses will be giving newly diagnosed people with type 2 diabetes a voucher which they can redeem for Diabetes UK’s new DVD and 36 page leaflet ‘Type 2 diabetes: a new beginning’.

The starter pack aims to answer many of the questions, doubts and myths that surround the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. It provides clear health care information from experts, dietary suggestions and, notably, the stories of other people with the condition.

If successful, the voucher scheme may be rolled out across the UK in a bid to help the tens of thousands of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every year.

For more information contact Amanda Hurwitz at Diabetes UK on 020 7424 1114 or [email protected].