Importance of appropriate and timely diabetes care

Support to manage her diabetes at home has helped Melbourne’s Maureen Carr regain her independence and stay active in the neighbourhood she’s lived in for more than half a century.

Maureen, 84, says she experienced numerous hospital admissions before getting the support through Bolton Clarke’s home nurses.

“When I came out of hospital, they told me that I may need a nurse - but I wanted to get home as fast as possible, and I wasn't fit to manage on my own. During the next two or three months, I was in and out of hospital,” she says.

“I've been living here 53 years this month and when I was away from home I wanted to be back home, I wanted to know what was going on.”

That’s where Bolton Clarke’s Clinical Nurse Consultant Diabetes, Allira Panebianco, came in.

Having Allira and her team visit regularly has made a world of difference to Maureen’s quality of life.

“The nurses have my best interests at heart. They know that I want to stay here, and they like to come and see me - just to check to that I'm managing all right,” she explains.

“I look forward to them coming. They're the reason I get out of bed in the morning. Otherwise, I'd be in there until about 10 o'clock. There is nothing that's too much trouble for them.”

November 14 is World Diabetes Day, and this year the theme is Access to Diabetes Care.

For Allira, ensuring education and care is available for people in their own homes is a priority. She was working in intensive care when she first realised the role expert nursing at home played in preventing unnecessary hospital admissions.

“I had the privilege of spending a lot of one-on-one time with people in intensive care and I got to really ask them questions about what diabetes was like for them, and really understood that people felt unheard,” she explains.

“During that time, I felt that was something that I could do better for people in their diabetes care. It is such a poorly understood condition and from first-hand experience I know that there are so many misconceptions in society about what is diabetes, how it should be managed, how to talk to a person about their diabetes.”

Maureen says that education is vital.

“The main thing is knowing what to do, when to do it and to make sure you do it,” she says.

Bolton Clarke has also produced its digital talking book Information on Type 2 Diabetes in Macedonian, Greek, Italian and Vietnamese.

You can access the resource here: Digital Talking Books | Bolton Clarke