How your donations help When kind people like you donate to Diabetes Australia you are helping to ensure no-one must deal with diabetes alone. Your donation helps us make a difference to Australians living with or at risk of diabetes. Your generous donation can provide hope, change, and save lives. Thanks to your generosity, Diabetes Australia continually works to develop better ways of supporting people living with diabetes. Your gift will help us support people living with diabetes and our mission to work with people living with or at risk of diabetes, health providers, researchers, funders and the community for positive change and outcomes. Our work includes: Searching for better treatments and a cure by funding world-class research Support for children living with all types of diabetes, and their carers Support for adults living with or at risk of diabetes, and their carers Community programs to support people living with diabetes where possible Diabetes education and information for health professionals Advocating to government on policies and issues related to diabetes Some examples of our contributions in these are: Research searching for better treatments and a cure Diabetes Australia supports and develops outstanding diabetes research to help find better treatments and a possible cure so that future generations can live a life free from diabetes and its complications. Each year Diabetes Australia Research Program awards grants to a range of research projects focused on studies across the spectrum of diabetes prevention, management and finding a cure. “Your donations are absolutely critical to finding better treatments for type 1 and type 2 diabetes.” “Our research can only make progress if funding is provided to help us. My own lab is totally dependent on grant funding. Your donations are absolutely critical to finding better treatments for type 1 and type 2 diabetes. On behalf of all diabetes researchers, I sincerely thank you and assure you that without your continued support, we cannot make the discoveries that will ultimately translate to a better, healthier lifestyle for people with diabetes,” Associate Professor Charmaine Simeonovic, Grant recipient. Current Research Award Project Artificial Pancreas Project – Diabetes Australia Millennium Award – Type 1 Diabetes Advanced kidney disease is one of the most debilitating complications for people living with type 1 diabetes, however a new trial hopes to show that an artificial pancreas can significantly improve health outcomes for people living with both conditions. The trial, led by Professor David O’Neal, Senior Endocrinologist at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, has been awarded the highly sought-after Diabetes Australia Millennium Award – Type 1 Diabetes, to help support the project. This prestigious national award comes with $150,000 funding that will assist Professor O’Neal and his team in progressing this vital research being led by St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. Read More (link to Artificial pancreas project scoops national award – Diabetes Australia) Support for Children and their Carers Danielle and Boyd live with their two little girls in a remote mining town. This is where both of their families are, where they went to school, where they met and married. They love where they live and their community. But when Augie, 7, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in October 2019, they felt a long way away from diabetes treatment and worried that Augie would feel she was the only one in the world with diabetes. That’s where DiaBuddies has been able to help. Despite overcoming insulin dosing, carb counting, meters, pumps, continuous glucose monitoring, set changes (when the sensor and cannula must be changed), as well as hypos (dangerously low blood glucose levels) and hypers (very high blood glucose levels), there were more challenges ahead for the young family. In 2020, COVID-19 closed state borders and stopped the family from attending diabetes appointments in the nearest (interstate) big city. There are no diabetes services in their town. “Unless you’re an urgent medical case, there were no exemptions to the border closure. There were no exemptions for people with chronic conditions like diabetes,” Danielle said. But Augie is facing a bigger battle than blood glucose levels. She doesn’t feel the same as everyone else anymore. “Augie says things like ‘I’m the only different one; I’m the only weird one’.” Her mother asked her: “What’s normal?” “We’ve all got something that’s different,” Danielle told her daughter. “None of us are exactly the same, we’re all different. There is no such thing as normal.” “You’re just extra special.” Danielle cries as she recounts her words. Thanks to the help of our wonderful donors, we started DiaBuddies Days. These events provide opportunities to connect children living with type 1 diabetes, parents and health professionals like Credentialled Diabetes Educators and dietitians. Public Awareness Campaigns to Support People Living with Diabetes Almost 700,000 people living with diabetes experience a mental or emotional health challenge every year. Concerningly, the latest figures show that about 400,000 people living with diabetes report difficulties accessing mental health care. That’s a lot of people who aren’t getting the help and support they need. More than 1.1 million Australians report being blamed or shamed for living with diabetes and more than 360,000 say this impacts their ability to live well with the condition. The new data prompted Diabetes Australia to launch its new “Let’s Rethink Diabetes” campaign as part of National Diabetes Week (10-16 July 2022) to highlight the need for change in both community attitudes and the way Australia’s health system delivers diabetes mental health support. The key areas of action that could significantly improve outcomes for people with diabetes are: Better awareness of diabetes mental health issues like diabetes distress and burnout. Putting mental health support at the centre of diabetes healthcare. Sebastian Harris, 19, whose younger brother was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes three years before him, says the constant management of his condition can be overwhelming. “I sometimes feel that no matter what I do, my diabetes can be extremely hard to control. “Some weeks my blood glucose levels can be unreasonably low or unreasonably high and it doesn’t make any sense, no matter what you do. “It makes me question whether I am managing it well. I know in the long run it will be fine but, in that moment, it’s hard not to feel defeated. “You want to switch off and forget about it, but you can’t do that with diabetes. There’s no holiday from it. “The consequences if you do try to ignore it can be life-threatening. We need to make sure people are aware of the issues, both physical and mental,” he said. For more information visit www.headsupdiabetes.com.au Advocacy to Government to support people living with diabetes Diabetes Australia supports people living with diabetes by advocating at all levels of government for fair access to services, treatments, technologies and draws attention to barriers that people living with diabetes can face in their lives. Our policy and advocacy team works on addressing individual issues and common problems people living with diabetes routinely face. For example, hospital rules that prevent self-care of diabetes which can put people’s health in grave danger. Recently, Diabetes Australia was part of the Australia’s Diabetes Alliance, who successfully advocated for all Australians living with type 1 diabetes to access subsidised continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and Flash glucose monitoring devices following the landmark expansion of the CGM Initiative by the Albanese Government. This expansion of means access to life-changing technology for up to 70,000 people living with type 1 diabetes and their families. This life-changing and life-saving technology will help improve the physical and mental health of people living with type 1 diabetes and ease the burden of cost-of-living pressures. Many people will now pay the equivalent of $32.50 for one month’s supply, or around $400 a year, instead of the up to $4,000 that some people paid previously. “Access to diabetes technology is also smart policy that invests in the long-term sustainability of our health system by helping to reduce the number of people who develop debilitating and costly diabetes-related complications.”~ Diabetes Australia Group CEO Justine Cain. Read more Diabetes technology for all people living with type 1 diabetes – Diabetes Australia Donate today and enable Diabetes Australia to support people living with or at risk of diabetes in even more ways. On behalf of the diabetes community, we say thank you!
