My wonderful friend and now partner in Diabetes Wellbeing Services, Lauren Botting and I, were always destined to join together in our diabetes journey. Walking separate diabetes paths for a number of years, we met a decade ago and had an instant connection around our passion and belief in the importance of mental health and wellbeing in diabetes care. It was at this point that the seed for “Diabetes Wellbeing Services” and its unique diabetes retreat programme was planted.
Around the same time, the world was starting to realise that diabetes was more than “just a bit of sugar”. The complex nature of diabetes and the relentless tasks associated with its management was starting to be recognised. An International study, the Diabetes Attitudes Wishes and Needs (DAWN) study, proved that wellbeing was the single most important thing to people living with diabetes and health care providers agreed – yet there was a huge gap in services addressing these aspects of care which remains to this day.
Lauren has been providing diabetes education in community for many years as a Registered Nurse and Credentialed Diabetes Educator, founding her own diabetes education services – “Diabetes Consultancy” and working with people across many GP surgeries in Adelaide for the past 8 years. People who know me, already know that I have lived with type 1 diabetes for 33 years and that I am a social worker with mental health qualifications. I founded a not for profit charity organisation, Diabetes Counselling Online www.diabetescounselling.com.au in 2001, which has been supporting people with diabetes across Australia for the past decade providing web based support and counselling.
Lauren and I started to make our dream a reality with the launching of Diabetes Wellbeing Services in late 2010 together, with the ultimate dream to create a “Diabetes Wellbeing Centre” to leave a legacy for people with diabetes to have a place to go where they can receive assistance for traditional and holistic care, together – including things like individual and group education programmes, counselling, workshops, networking with other people with diabetes, cooking and nutrition classes, exercise classes, art and music therapy, massage, yoga and meditation.
There is a tsunami of diabetes in the world and with double the rates of depression in diabetes, low mood and high distress for many people, Diabetes Wellbeing Services is unique in its approach. We have begun this journey with the development of “Diabetes Wellbeing Retreats” to provide a weekend away from everyday life in a peaceful environment, where people can take time out for themselves. The aim of a retreat is to learn strategies for improved mental health and wellbeing, alongside diabetes education and importantly, networking with other people with diabetes. This concept of “retreat ,relax and relate” uses Mindfulness as a core element. This assists with learning strategies on how to consider gentle changes in people’s lives. The networking is fantastic for each person and they can gain a sense of freedom from thought processes and isolation and reassess healthy options for lifestyle and peace of mind.
We now hope to grow the vision of a “Diabetes Wellbeing Centre” with the retreat programme being a first step on the road to our ultimate dream!
The first 2 Retreats for 2012 will be on 27-29 April and 22 – 24 June. More details at www.diabeteswellbeingservices.com.au
Diabetes Online 