How does diabetes affect your life?
DUKADA® Trio is a practical tool for users of insulin pens. With its unique features, you can take insulin anywhere and whenever without forgetting the time of the dose. However, diabetes is not only a matter of technology, medicine, food and exercise. We, therefore, try to find an answer to the question on how does diabetes affect your life?
On March 17, 2016, the Danish Type1 Association hosted a well-attended meeting in Copenhagen, which touched upon psychological aspects of diabetes and how to enable diabetics to make informed decisions about their diabetes.
There were briefings by a nurse from Steno Diabetes Center (a leading Danish Diabetes Center), a psychotherapist, who is herself a diabetic, and a diabetes psychologist. They informed on their respective techniques when dealing with diabetics where the treatment situation to some extent appeared to be deadlocked, and they more generally spoke on the overall goal to make it possible for diabetics to take their own guided decisions about their treatment.
Diabetes psychologist Clea Bruun Johansen gave an introduction to “positive psychology”. She is a co-author of the book Et bedre liv med diabetes, (“A better life with diabetes”) which is about how to achieve the best possible daily life with diabetes. The book has not been translated into other languages. , but there is also the book Persona grata with Diabetes written by Paul Cathcart. He – himself a diabetic – describes the need for diabetics to be recognized as the equal of the healthcare providers having a right to make informed decisions and the importance of “bridging the gap between professional understanding and who we are”. The meeting on March 17 intended to bridge that gap.
Both books can be recommended.