Thursday 8 August 2013

The Diabetes Family

I'm being either a bit stupid or a bit brave and adding another service into the diabetes online community #doc

I've created a new kid on the #doc

@diabetesfamily on Twitter

&

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/408751785902265/ on Facebook

What is the DiabetesFamily?

The 'family' is huge, and can be summarised into five P's

(i) People with Diabetes (PWD) - Type 1, Type 2 or any other kinda variant/name they come up with in the future

(ii) Parents - And this doesn't just cover parents of children with diabetes, those children will become adults one day, but you will still be Mum & Dad, parents will always be concerned about something that impacts on their children, no matter what age the 'child' is.

(iii) Partners - Husband/Wife/Significant Other, Live in Lover, occasional bed partner - people with a close connection with you and hopefully people who care about you a good deal and have their own questions/queries

(iv) Pals - A wide ranging group - includes brothers/sisters, school friends, university friends, flatmates, pub mates any kind of mate

(iv) Professionals - This is Healthcare Professionals, Pharmaceutical firms, charities, other #DOC support groups - the kinda far-off cousin once removed of the family, strange but nonetheless an important member

Like any family there will be disagreements and breakdowns and shouting, but a family is strong because they share things in common and they have a want to be together, most of the time.

I don't plan to compete with the other longer more established #doc support folk, this is just a little something to add to the understanding that although sometimes diabetes can be a very 'me' condition, it should be an 'us', other people have a role to play, and we as people with the condition have to be open enough to let people in.

So if any of this has grabbed your attention and you can be bothered to follow another thing to do with diabetes then please do using the links/profile names above!