Diabetes Day in the Dail

On Wednesday 22 June in Leinster House, Diabetes Ireland is briefing TDs and Senators on current diabetes services and what future services are required to support the diabetes community nationally in the coming years. Myself, Rebecca Flanagan, Davina Lyon & Elizabeth Murphy have been invited to attend this event with both Rebecca, a parent of a child with type 1 diabetes, & Davina, an adult with type 1 diabetes, making personal statements. Next week I hope to fill you all in on how it went.

If you are reading this post early on the 21st and have a couple of minutes we would very much appreciated it if you would email your local TDs and ask them to represent you or your family member at this briefing. You can find email addresses for all of them here; Who is my TD?

Speakers will include Dr Nuala Murphy, Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist and National Clinical Lead in Paediatric Diabetes, Dr Ronan Canavan, Consultant Endocrinologist, National Clinical Lead in Adult Diabetes and our four patient representatives.

On a completely different note - We want to hear your stories!

Over a number of months we have been featuring your diabetes stories. And you have all been fantastic! We would love to hear from more of you. Are you a diabetes veteran but new to the Irish Diabetes Online Community? Have you raised a child with diabetes who is now an adult? Are you a young adult still getting use to doing it without your parents? Basically, if you have something you want to say or a story to tell - we want to hear it.

This is the list of people we have featured over the last couple of years;

• Diabetes Families Trip to Trabolgan by Roisin Keegan Published 2016/05/31
• A Newly Diagnosed Family’s story Published 2016/05/23
• 17 and Type 1 Diabetes by Abbie O’Sullivan Published 2016/05/16
• The O’Sullivan D-Mum by Julie O’Sullivan Published 2016/04/25
• Tour de Type 1 Diabetes! By James O’Reilly Published 2016/04/18
• Type 1 Diabetes; A Rollercoaster of Emotions by Olivia Pyne Published 2016/04/12
• Meet Tracy Fahey from Limerick Published 2016/03/22
• Meet Shane O’Donnell, Young Leader in Diabetes Published 2016/03/08
• Rosemary’s Story; 30 years Pumping Published 2016/01/26
• Rebecca Flanagan; Thriveabetes had the potential to nourish Published 2015/02/25
• Christine Meehan; Thriveabetes is a first of it's kind event Published 2015/02/19
• Davina Lyon; Thriveabetes; A Fantastic Opportunity Published 2015/02/12

Email me at Grainne@thriveabetes.ie

Diabetes Support & Empowerment

When you live with type 1 diabetes there is SO, SO MUCH information to learn, especially in the early days. So much, that I don't think it is possible for any health care professional to cover absolutely everything - how could they? Then, as they years go by, we are considered the experts, and so information relevant to us falls through the cracks. One of the major benefits of diabetes support groups is that they can fill in the gaps. From explaining how a Long Term Illness book works to how to go about getting your many, many health checks, such as feet and eyes, to staying updated as the information changes, which it does all the time, to just knowing that you are not the only one.

In my opinion, diabetes peer support is as important in your diabetes management as your health care providers. A support group provides opportunities to share experiences and to learn from one another. They encourage strength and resilience. Very often it's the piece of diabetes management that you never knew you needed.

ConnecT1D in Seattle say that "people with T1D who connect with others with T1D tend to make shifts in their lifestyles that add up to better T1D management, better health and greater satisfaction in life."

Diabetes Forecast, the American Diabetes Association's monthly magazine says that "Much of the research on peer support has involved people with diabetes, and the findings are significant. According to a recent report by the National Peer Support Collaborative Learning Network, of 20 studies on peer support and diabetes published between 2000 and 2012, all but one found social support to be beneficial."

And it doesn't matter if that support comes from the virtual, social media world or from face to face contact. Although, you cannot beat face to face meetups. Click here to see if there is a support group in your area and to find out what social media supports there are in Ireland.

And I'm happy that more and more diabetes supports groups are starting up and growing in strength. I believe that a diabetes support group only needs two people to meet over a cuppa to get started. That might be a simplistic view of it but that’s what it is.

Another way to get connected to your type 1 diabetes community is to come to Thriveabetes, where you will meet at least one hundred other adults with type 1 diabetes and at least another one hundred parents of children with type 1 diabetes. Now, that is empowerment.

Register for Thriveabetes

Thriveabetes 2016 takes place on Saturday 1st October in Naas, Co. Kildare. Registration is open now and you can read more about our speakers here.

Speaker Spotlight - Joe Solo

Joe Solowiejczyk spoke at Thriveabetes in 2015 and was a huge hit! And I have been under strict instructions to make sure that he was speaking again at Thriveabetes 2016, which he is. Phew! I don't have to go into hiding.

For those of you who are yet to become familiar with Joe, he has lived with type 1 diabetes for 50+ years. But he is also a registered nurse, certified diabetes educator and family therapist.

Joe works extensively with both patients and professionals on the Family-Approach to Diabetes Management. He works with paediatric patients and their families to help them cope with their child’s diagnosis and daily challenge of living with diabetes. He designs educational and counselling programs for both children and adults with diabetes.

His ebook “A Type 1 Guide to the Universe”  introduces a new way to learn to thrive with diabetes. It is the first book to integrate the psychological and emotional aspects of dealing with diabetes into the core of its approach.

 Joe is scheduled to co-present with our parent advocate from the UK, Penny Robinson on how to advocate for your child with diabetes.

Welcome to Type 1 posted this video of one of Joe's presentations so you can see for yourself what you will experience at Thriveabetes 2016.

Register for Thriveabetes

Thriveabetes 2016 takes place on Saturday 1st October in Naas, Co. Kildare. Registration is open now and you can read more about our speakers here.