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| Greetings! Welcome to your September instalment of news, humour and talk about real life with type 1 D. We have had a busy year at the Type 1 Diabetes Network, whilst continuing to bring you the latest and greatest in type 1 and raise awareness of issues, we also decided to step back and put some serious energy into reviewing what we have acheived in the almost 12 years since we came to be, and plan for the future. Thanks to the 10 volunteers (smart, interesting people with Type 1 from all walks of life) who have been generously giving their time to this process throughout 2009.
We now have a renewed vision for our organisation and a strategy for how to achieve it. We have just set down the final draft of an exciting strategic plan which maps out where we are going clearly and sensibly. AND REALITY CHECK WANTS YOU! To join with us to make it happen. Read all about it some more, here. And drop us a line if you are interested and able to help. Thanks!
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| ************ SPONSORED ANNOUNCEMENT ************ |
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Diabetes Burnout event in Brisbane - 22nd November
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Following two very well-attended events this year in Brisbane, we are pleased to
announce our final Brisbane event for 2009:
Beating Diabetes Burnout
> Some strategies for managing the head stuff that comes with Type 1 Diabetes
- What to do when you can't be bothered any more
- Learn how other people beat burnout
- Lots of chances to laugh!
SPEAKERS:
* Alan Headey - Health Psychologist
and
* Kate Gilbert - Founder of the Reality Check
website and the Type 1 Diabetes Network, with 26 years experience of D and fresh back from the World Diabetes Congress in Canada, Kate
is coming up from Melbourne to speak at the seminar
WHEN:
Sunday 22 November 2009, 2-4pm
at the
Sky Bar, Queens Arms Hotel, 64 James Street, New Farm
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Malfunctioning Insulin Pump - What Happened?
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There has been a scary media report from Canada doing the rounds about a Medtronic insulin pump that reportedly malfunctioned. We're not taking off our pumps, but we have been doing some investigating and have uncovered a bit more information for anyone who is interested to understand more than what was in the headlines. |
Could Type 1 be caused by lifestyles and environment?
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Some new research is beginning to uncover that the huge rise in numbers of people getting type 1 could be caused by things in our lifestyle, and our environment.
But isn't type 2 the one cause by lifestyle factors such as obesity? And type 1 is just genes and bad luck, or a trigger??
Reality Checker Clare went digging for us and has written a really useful quick overview of what we know so far about things like obesity and Vitamin D deficiency and their relationship to type 1.
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********* Sponsored Announcement *********
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HbA1c targets should be individualised - new guidelines
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 New guidelines just out from the Australian Diabetes Society (the endos) now recommend that we all have individualised targets for our Hba1c, instead of one target that everyone has to aim for.
The endos now say that whilst under 7 is the recommendation for most people, there will be some who should be aiming for under 6 and others where under 8 is best target.
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Kidney Function in Pregnancy Research
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 Are you:
1. Planning pregnancy?
2. Aged below 40?
3. Interested in participating in research?
If you answered "yes"
to the above, you may be eligible to participate in a research project held at
the Austin Hospital, Royal Women's Hospital and Mercy Hospital for Women
looking at kidney function in diabetic pregnancy.
For more information, please
contact Dr Jenny Huynh (researcher) on 03 9496 2260 or j.huynh4@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au.
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Response to Health Reform - Type 1 well represented
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For those who are following the major health system reforms underway at the moment, the Chronic Illness Alliance (of which we are a member) has provided a terrific response to the most recent proposals - and included issues that are important to people with Type 1 diabetes.
In addition, one of the specific examples in the submission cites an issue of concern to many of us, here's a sneak peek:
"It's dangerous going
to an emergency department these days because many of the staff confuse Type 1
diabetes with Type 2 diabetes. That's because there is such a lot of emphasis
on Type 2 these days. If you treat a Type 1 person as you would Type 2
diabetes, then you are placing them at great risk."
- Young woman with T1
diabetes.
At the end of the day Type 1 is such a small peice in the puzzle of the massive health system that it is always hard to get politicians excited about the many things we want improved for Type 1. Having our issues and concerns put together with those of more than 50 other organisations representing people with chronic or long-term issues is a really powerful way to get them heard by the decision makers.
We also have the Statement of Issues affecting Australians with Type 1 Diabetes which has been provided to politicians and other decision makers, and is available for you to give to anyone you know and want to inform about how to improbve life for people with Type 1 as well - visit www.d1.org.au/issues.
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New website for the Type 1 Network - update
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You might remember that, earlier this year, Reality Checker
Tony was successful in applying to Optus for a grant to help us
upgrade our entire website - in fact we are building a brand new
website for the Type 1 Diabetes Network that our popular discussion forum (Reality Check)
and our sister site (Munted Pancreas for parents) will fit nicely into.
Many of you will have voted and commented on the early design options for the site earlier this year.
Thanks for your help.
The update is that last week Tony, Colleen and Kate met with the web designers for the final sign off on the new site's
design and had an afternoon's training in how to use the fancy new content management
system which will make it a hundred times easier for us to make changes
to the site and add new content.
We now have the mammoth task of moving all the 500 pages from the old site over to the new system/site!!
Keep watching this space. We have fingers crossed we can launch before the end of the year, maybe even in November.
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Help spread the word to Parents of Kids with D
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 The very clever parents of kids with D who manage the Munted Pancreas website have developed a pamphlet (pictured) and a poster to explain what MP is all about and let more parents know about it.
If you know any parents of kids with D, or if your diabetes educator
etc also see kids with Type 1, you might like to help out by printing
these off and passing them on - or emailing them around.
Find the resources at this link http://d1.org.au/resources.htm#prom
There are some resources to explain and promote Reality Check too at the same link that you could pass on while you're at it!
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QUICK SHOTS
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Hot topics on Reality Check online discussion this week:
On Munted Pancreas, Parents of type 1 kids are talking about:
Upcoming MEETS in real life :
- Brisbane, Sizzlers (kid friendly) lunch, Sunday 4 October
- Melbourne, BBQ by the Yara, 22 November
- Sydney, venue TBC maybe King St Wharf, 3 November
- Brisbane, Beating Diabetes Burnout, 22 November
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Our next issue will be coming to you direct from Montreal, Canada!
Kate has been invited to speak at the World Diabetes Congress and
will be reporting back on all the news and views she uncovers in a very
busy week over there. She is currently preparing her presentation and has invited suggestions - click here for more.
More than 10,000 people from 150 countries will be at
the congress. And we are completely chuffed to have been asked to speak
about Reality Check and all our work at such a big important event! We will also have a poster presentation about the Issues Statement. We had a lot of good feedback on Kate's
reports from the last World D Congress in 2006 (click here) - and we look forward to bringing you the latest and greatest again next month!
Kate & Mel
The Type 1 Diabetes Network Inc. |
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