Sunday, July 13 marked the commencement of National Diabetes Week, an annual campaign facilitated by Diabetes Australia to raise awareness about the disease.
Kylie Nadenbousch, who manages Nexus Primary Health’s team of diabetes educators, said observing National Diabetes Week was important in spotlighting the disease for the public.
“It’s essential, because of the growing numbers ... It’s exponentially growing,” Ms Nadenbousch said.
“There’s a lot more awareness now, but we say that for every one person in the community that has diabetes, there’s someone who’s not diagnosed.
“We certainly need to have that awareness out there and get people to get their health checks done, and having things like this week help us to get more awareness across the whole health system of diabetes as a serious disease.”
Over 1.3 million people in Australia are living with type 2 diabetes, and, in the past 10 years, the rates of young people being diagnosed have grown.
The rate of people being diagnosed in their 20s and 30s has increased by 44 per cent, and diagnosis before the age of 20 has risen by 17 per cent.
While the statistics are alarming, Ms Nadenbousch said there was a lot of support available.
“I think sometimes people don’t realise that if they have got it, they can manage it quite well,” she said.
“There are steps that you can take to try to minimise the deterioration of your health with diabetes.
“We’ve got really great technology now to help reduce disruptions and make the lifestyle easier and better.”
For this year’s National Diabetes Week, Diabetes Australia has called for urgent action in prevention efforts.
Diabetes Australia urges Australians to get a health check to understand their risk of type 2 diabetes, and is continuing to advocate for a national prevention strategy.
Nexus Primary Health’s diabetes education service is available throughout the Mitchell Shire, at the Seymour, Broadford, Wallan and Kinglake offices, and is also available in Nagambie.
Ms Nadenbousch said it was all about working alongside people with diabetes and their health team to support them in managing symptoms and understanding the disease.
“Predominately, we have people come to us for face-to-face visits,” she said.
“It’s all about looking at all of (the patient’s) lifestyle and medications regarding diabetes and seeing what we can do to help them to improve their diabetes management and reduce the risk of complications for life.
“We do care plans for people, and we work with their referrers, which is usually the general practitioners, to make sure they’re getting a full range of care to meet their health goals.”
For more information on Nexus Primary Health’s diabetes education service, call 1300 77 33 52.
