Top 5: Get your diabetes team together

People with diabetes require a lot of new skills and advice to look after their diabetes. The good news is you don’t need to do it all on your own. There are many health professionals you can call on, depending on where you are at with your diabetes. Click on the link for Jayne’s top 5 to get your diabetes brain trust together.

  1. What are your current diabetes/health care needs?

Get a piece of paper, rule a vertical line down the middle and in the left-hand column write down any health issues you have at the moment that are affecting your blood glucose levels or have occurred because you have diabetes. Think about this broadly. Then add to this any questions or aspects of your diabetes that you aren’t sure about and would like some extra help. You may need to leave the list up and add to it over a few days!

2. Who can help you?

Now consider … who could help you to address this issue? For example, your gums have been bleeding when washing your teeth. A dentist can help to check the cause and advise how to manage the problem and prevent gum disease from increasing your blood glucose levels.

Here’s some of the health professionals you could choose to help you with this part of the exercise!

  • Counselor
  • Dentist/Dental hygienist
  • Diabetes educator (or Credentialled Diabetes Educator)
  • Dietitian
  • Endocrinologist
  • Exercise physiologist
  • General Practitioner
  • Medical specialists
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Optician/Ophthalmologist
  • Physiotherapist
  • Podiatrist
  • Primary care nurse (GP nurse)
  • Psychiatrist
  • Psychologist
  • Social worker

If you aren’t sure about this Jayne Lehmann, Credentialled Diabetes Educator RN can help you to do this.

3. Talk to your doctor or diabetes educator

Tell your doctor/diabetes educator that you are looking to bring a diabetes care team together for you to get some extra help with your diabetes care. Highlight the problems/issues you have identified and the potential health professionals who can help. Ask who they have found to help other people in the local area? Which of the issues need to be followed up as a higher priority? Are there any that the doctor or diabetes educator can help you with, or the nurse or allied health professionals working in their practice?

4. Saving costs

You don’t need to follow everything up at once. Pace yourself and investigate if there are some services available in the public or community health sectors. If you have private health insurance which can be covered (fully or partly) with your insurance? Decide which you might like to be eligible for at least some reimbursement using your GP Management Plan/Team Care Arrangement referrals (there are 5/year). Also don’t be afraid to try a different health professional if you don’t click with the one you try first. It is worth seeing someone else as they may just make the difference you are looking for!

5. Reaping the rewards

Some of the rewards appear immediately – like relieving the pain of an ingrown toe nail with a visit to the podiatrist. Others take longer – like getting an exercise regimen in place to improve your fitness and blood circulation over a longer period of time. The best thing is you don’t need to feel like it is all up to you.

Want some help to get your diabetes team together?

I encourage people with diabetes to see their diabetes educator 1-2 times each year so they can help them to keep on track with this sort of planning. It makes such a difference if you have someone to help you to be more proactive with your diabetes care as it means you always have someone there to give you support who really gets how hard it is to be on top of your diabetes 24/7. If you think I could help you to get your diabetes team together ask your doctor for a referral here in metropolitan Adelaide. My details for the referral are:

Jayne Lehmann Credentialled Diabetes Educator 41 Winchester Street, Malvern  SA  5061.

The referral can be emailed to jayne@edhealth.com.au or mailed to the same address.