This week is dblog week, where literally hundreds of diabetes bloggers write about certain topics each day (I counted 203 participants in this year’s list!). I participated in dblog week in 2011, 2012, and 2013, but this year time got away from me and I didn’t even realize it was the week until last night. I was looking at the topics and decided I’ll write about some of them anyway – in my own time (because they are good and/or fun and/or interesting).
Monday’s topic was to discuss diabetes issues that get me fired up. I admit I can get fired up about a lot of things (I like to say I’m passionate about things…). One of the biggest things for me is the apparent gap between diabetes health care professionals and people living with diabetes. I see and hear comments about it on social media pretty consistently and it makes me sad, frustrated, and concerned. As someone living with diabetes, and as a diabetes health professional, I take this very seriously. I want good care for myself and I want it for everyone else who has diabetes.
It’s bad enough that many, many people with diabetes don’t get care at all (for a variety of reasons), and we need to work on that also. But in the meantime those who do, should definitely get good, effective care from providers who listen and work as a team. The “compliance” model is outdated and useless. We’ve been talking and writing about the “empowerment” model for about three decades, and yet we are not truly there yet. And I think that’s pathetic.
In order to deal with my fired-upness, I work to help others live well with diabetes and help diabetes professionals take a closer look at how they deliver care, more specifically how they work with people living with diabetes.