So folk are looking at developing services for young folk with diabetes - an important step and one to be applauded, though i don't envy those given the task their job!
One such group will be Diabetes UK's YLAG Young Leaders Advisory Group, a group of young people aged 16 to 30 who will advise the charity on how it can improve to meet the needs of this demographic.
This blog is something i've decided to write as a way of giving them something from someone who has been there, bought the t-shirt and is now safely through to pipe and slippers stage
Today's folk in that age bracket will need different things than what I wanted or needed, but hopefully some of those in YLAG, and anyone else considering developing services for young adults with diabetes can review and think - yes that's still important.
When considering things like this I always get drawn to the 'Connect' part of Diabetes UK's new branding and objectives.
Young People with Diabetes need not only to Connect with fellow people with diabetes in this age bracket, the work of YLAG needs to consider the Connections that will be developing outside of life with diabetes, but into which diabetes will have an impact - college & university friends, employers in first jobs and not forgetting first relationships.
Why these people - well consider it - you have had diabetes either for a long time, or just diagnosed; its your condition, and one of the things that most people with diabetes struggle with is connecting with other people about their condition. They don't struggle to make a connection with them as a person, but to help strengthen that relationship I believe anything that gets developed by YLAG or others needs to include a resource for these people without diabetes that young people will make connections with.
There will be stupid questions that friends/employers will either be too embarrassed to ask, or to worried that it will upset you.
Questions such as -
'Can I take a friend with diabetes into lodgings with me rather than Halls?'
'Can I take a friend with diabetes on a stag or hen weekend, what will the effect be on their blood glucose?'
'Will doing exams have an impact on my friends blood glucose control and what can I do to help?'
'Does diabetes needs to be considered a condition for granting people extra time in exams due to risks of hi's and lo's impacting?'
'Do I need to provide facilities for someone with diabetes to take their injections?'
'Will someone with diabetes have more sick absence than someone else?'
and of course the really icky question
'What about sex and blood glucose control?'
Ask your current friends/employers if these are things they have wanted to ask you and been too frightened to ask, or maybe they have been asked - brilliant if they have.
My experience in that age bracket was that people did ask these questions of me and I was happy to keep them correct, but it would have been nice to have something that I could have pointed them towards.
Diabetes impacts on not only you but it impacts on all around you - we must never discount the fact that its not just diabetes and you
