When I started www.diabetescounselling.com.au all those years ago in 2001, there were not many voices in the online space for people living with diabetes. The Internet was still new and in Australia, the wonderful Type 1 Diabetes Network http://www.d1.org.au (then just Reality Check) was the loudest voice I could find and a fine one at that. But at this time in their history, their voice was very specifically for people with type 1 diabetes who were 16 – 40.
Online counselling was not heard of in Australia and the idea of people with diabetes needing support and counselling (other than learning how to prick their finger and use insulin) was rare. So our adventure into the online space offering free counselling and support to people with diabetes was interesting, scary and somewhat mad!
Yet here we are in our 10th year. As we have evolved over the past decade down here in Australia, the DOC (or diabetes online community for those not in the know) has grown at a very fast rate – almost as fast as the Internet itself.
What I have noticed is that in places like America in particular, there have been many champions who have lead with their voices, their heads and their hearts, such as TuDiabetes http://www.tudiabetes.org Six Until Me http://sixuntilme.com/ Diabetes Mine http://www.diabetesmine.com/ and many more. As a result there are a multitude of amazing peer support sites, bloggers and the like in the US and a strong voice across social media in particular.
In Australia, the growth of the voice of people with diabetes in the online space has been somewhat slower, despite the growing recognition of the importance of peer support, a shared voice and mental health support.
What you tend to hear down here in “Oz” is the voice of diabetes health care professionals, pharmaceutical and diabetes device companies, research groups and major “consumer advocacy” organisations. What you hear less is the actual voice of the people who live with and are affected by diabetes each and every day.
Groups have sprung up on places like facebook and more voices are being heard, yet it is not enough.
So our challenge is to get as many Australian voices of people living with or affected by diabetes heard as possible. This challenge starts now and begins with this blog and other forums and chat rooms at Diabetes Counselling Online, facebook, YouTube and as many places as we can place ourselves – most importantly we want people with diabetes and their loved ones to add their voices to the conversations in word, video and pictures.
So many people feel alone with their diabetes. Isolated. Guilty. Scared. When you hear someone elses voice and what they are saying makes sense you feel better. And you feel better knowing that someone else feels better because of what you shared.
Sharing our voices helps.
Take the challenge and let’s hear your voice!
Diabetes Online 