yada yada:
June 2015
Support, Information and a Voice for the Type 1 Community  
Support, Information and a Voice for the Type 1 Community
In this issue
Readership & membership survey
How pets could help kids with t1
Psychology and type 1
Low carb diets and type 1
Other News
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Welcome to the August edition of Yada Yada! We hope you're keeping warm and snug, wherever you are. If you participated in our recent readership survey and mentioned that you wanted to see Yada more frequently, this edition is for you!
Readership & membership survey
We were thrilled to get over 250 responses to our recent survey - thanks to everyone who participated.

A few interesting observations:

  • The majority of respondents were in NSW, Vic and QLD, but 10% of people answering the survey were from another country, which is great!
  • 54% of respondents were pump users, compared to 36% on MDI and 9% on syringes or a combination.
  • We're actually quite old: it seems 81% of respondents are aged 36 or over! So definitely not just the network for 'young adults' any longer.

We got lots of great suggestions for content and issues people would like to see covered, which is hugely helpful. (You can see a proper list here.) We're always happy to hear your suggestions so you can send us feedback any time, not just as part of surveys!

One of our main stakeholder groups who did not really appear in the survey data is the group of health professionals who work with type 1 patients. We know you're out there, and you're very important to us! We're always happy to hear from you and we want to meet your needs as well.

A key thing the data did show was that we need to keep putting out there the different ways you can interact with us and other people with type 1. Quite a few respondents said they wished they could hear more about particular issues they were facing: long-term management of type 1, loneliness, problems associated with living in rural Australia... We do have a way you can connect with other people going through similar experiences: it's our online forum, Reality Check, www.realitycheck.org.au. 

One of the things people often say when they discover the forum is how wonderful it feels to know they're not alone.

We also have a closed Facebook group especially for parents of kids with type 1! It's called Munted 
Pancreas. Just search for "munted pancreas" and send a request to join. 
 
How pets could help kids with t1
Kim forwarded us this interesting article about how looking after a pet can help children with type 1 with their own self-care, when they're prompted to check their blood glucose at the same time as feeding their pet fish. Although the research group was only small (29 children), after three months the 
fish-owning children had slightly lowered their HbA1c, compared to the control group. 

To read the article, click here.

This raises interesting possibilities not only for children, but for adults with type 1, especially those suffering from a bit of burn-out, as we all do from time to time. Have you ever tried linking your BGL checks to something you enjoy, such as caring for your pet?

Psychology and type 1: a partnership whose time has come 
This month we posted an article on the website by registered psychologist Lisa Engel, whose client group consists of number of people with type 1. Lisa's article discusses some ways in which a psychologist can help people with type 1 deal with some of the unique challenges of the condition, especially when burnout, anxiety and depression rear their ugly heads. She also mentions the benefits of techniques that increase resilience. "Over time, continued efforts to build resilience by gaining mastery over the mind can have a profound impact, resulting in actual changes in the structures of the cerebral cortex. Research using MRI scans have shown increased activity in the brain correlated with reduced anxiety and depression and increased pain tolerance."

To read Lisa's article, click here.

If you've ever seen a psychologist to help with issues related to type 1, and if you'd like to recommend him/her, please drop us a line to info@t1dn.org.au and we can add the person to our Recommended Health Professionals list.
Low carb diets and type 1 
Always a controversial topic on the forum, The Dietitians Association of Australia have recently released a "hot topic" article on low carb-high fat diets for diabetes. Kait, our resident dietitian, tells us, "They don't specify a particular type of diabetes in the article. However, the broader goals of dietetic management for either type of diabetes are fairly similar at the end of the day: just slightly different ways of delivering it!"

The link to the article is here.
 
Other news 
  • Welcome to Catapult, our new moderator on the Reality Check forum! Hop over to www.realitycheck.org.au to see what people are chatting about.
  • Next month, we'll be calling for nominations for our annual Seed Award. We want to hear about people in the type 1 community who are inspiring others. It could be your health professional, your dad, your daughter - anyone who is doing a great job living with type 1 or helping others to live with type 1! You can send your nomination to info@t1dn.org.au.
  • If you're interested in contributing to market research in the area of type 1 diabetes products/services, you can join our new closed Facebook group. Just search for "T1DN consumer research group" and send a request to join.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget you can always send us your feedback and comments by replying to this email or commenting on our Facebook page. We'll see you next time!

From everyone at
The Type 1 Diabetes Network 
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