Today, Diabetes Ireland, launched its 2023 Annual Report summarising its work and activities in the areas of diabetes advocacy, education, support and awareness.
Throughout 2023, Diabetes Ireland continued to provide its services to the diabetes community ensuring that thousands of people continued to receive education, support, and motivation to maintain good management of their condition. Likewise, the continuing support of our members and the diabetes community has helped Diabetes Ireland enormously in maintaining our services, and we are extremely grateful for this.
Diabetes Ireland once again embraced in-person events for the diabetes community with the relaunching of events such as the Health Awareness Exhibition, Teen Activity Day, Family Weekend, summer picnics and Christmas parties plus DICE (our annual healthcare professional conference).
We continued our virtual education programmes delivering our CODE programme and education webinars for people with diabetes and their families. We also continued to support thousands of people through our helpline, monthly ezines, members magazine, leaflets https://www.diabetes.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Living-well-with-Type-2-Diabetes.pdf and via our various social media platforms. https://www.diabetes.ie/living-with-diabetes/living-with-type-2/diabetes-ireland-education-programme/
Work on the development of our Diabetes Emotional Wellbeing Programmes also began and in addition, we embarked on the re-development of our website.
New awareness campaigns were successfully delivered, encouraging people with diabetes to request a test to assess their heart failure risk https://www.diabetes.ie/check-know-discuss-prevent-heart-failure/ the relaunch of our TEST campaign to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes symptoms https://www.diabetes.ie/living-with-diabetes/child-diabetes/think-type-1-diabetes-think-test/ and our Back-to-School awareness campaign https://www.diabetes.ie/living-with-diabetes/child-diabetes/school-and-diabetes/ to support and prepare students with Type 1 diabetes for heading back to school.
However, the most significant initiative undertaken was our first-ever survey highlighting the lived experience of people with diabetes in Ireland. The results from the survey of over 500 people living with diabetes, parents and carers provided very valuable information to help us define their needs and our efforts to improve the delivery of public services, better and quicker access to good quality care, diabetes technology and medications for everyone. https://www.diabetes.ie/accessing-diabetes-services-in-ireland-2023/
Advocacy was once again a main priority of Diabetes Ireland. We continue to seek better recognition of diabetes by the Government and its public officials, and we work continuously to achieve improvements that will benefit the diabetes community. Diabetes Ireland launched its 2024 Pre-budget submission in the summer of 2023 which proposed the setting up of a task force to develop a National Diabetes Strategy and also improved access to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).
The establishment of a diabetes task force to develop a National Diabetes Strategy will provide vision, leadership, and direction for optimum care of people with diabetes and their families. It will enable the HSE to recruit the necessary staff to improve the health and quality of life of people living with diabetes and reduce the long-term costs to the health service of avoidable diabetes complications.
Recently, the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD mandated the establishment of a Diabetes Policy and Services Review to improve patient outcomes, minimise the health complications associated with diabetes, and ensure that our health services are best organized to provide the patient care and support needed by people living with diabetes.
The Diabetes Policy and Services Review is charged with providing a report to the Minister by December 2024 identifying gaps and weaknesses in current diabetes services and a set of actions and a plan to improve service delivery and patient outcomes. The Steering Group leading the Review, which includes representatives of the Department of Health, the HSE and Diabetes Ireland, has already met several times. The final document should be published following the review and set out a road map for excellence in diabetes care provision by 2030 in Ireland. https://www.diabetes.ie/national-diabetes-strategy-mandated-by-the-minister-for-health/
Acceptance of HIQA recommendations by the Minister for Health following a review of the evidence in relation to CGM systems and to inform decision-making by the HSE as to whether reimbursement for CGM systems in the Irish healthcare system should be extended to additional adult populations with Type 1 diabetes was warmly welcomed in December 2023. The most notable recommendation is the removal, after 5 years of advocacy, of the age barrier for Freestyle Libre, giving access to the system for all people with Type 1 diabetes based on clinical need. Access to CGM is still a continuing issue for people with Type 2 diabetes and we will continue to advocate on this issue going forward. https://www.diabetes.ie/hiqa-publishes-report-on-continuous-glucose-monitoring-use-in-adults-with-type-1-diabetes/
Both our Diabetes Ireland Care Centres in Cork and Dublin continue to be extremely busy with high numbers attending and being successfully treated in each Centre. As well as providing podiatry, Diabetic Retina Screening and counselling services, the Centre’s are also a fantastic resource for people seeking support and information on the many facets of diabetes, both for those who have been recently diagnosed and for those who have been living years with the condition and need some additional support to manage their condition more effectively. https://www.diabetes.ie/care-centre/
Being Ireland’s national charity solely dedicated to helping people with diabetes and their families brings enormous responsibility and makes reaching our mission to provide quality services and improve the quality of life for people living with diabetes extremely important.
As ever, our goal is to support, educate, motivate, and empower people with diabetes and their families and to advocate for optimum health care for all those with diabetes in Ireland. As well as maintaining current services, we are committed to growing our services long into the future. We need and want you to become and stay a member so we can mutually support each other.
Once again, we cannot express enough our appreciation for the ongoing support we receive from our current volunteers, fundraisers, healthcare professionals, members, employees, corporate supporters and the HSE for helping us help our community. We must all continue to work together for people with diabetes in Ireland so that we can all live long and healthy lives.
