Type 1 Writes - Diabetes Blog
  • About Me
  • About This Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Speaking and Writing

Fear

Time to Rethink National Diabetes Week?

July 18, 2016 by Frank 5 Comments

As I watched the response towards an amputation-themed National Diabetes Week escalate late last week, I’ve been thinking about my own stance on Diabetes Australia’s campaign. I made my opinion clear though my vlog last Monday (which you can watch here), and have steered clear from most of the conversation since. While it was disappointing to see some of the commentary getting out of hand, it will not make me feel any less guilty for having an opinion of my own. 

Diabetes Australia advocates for the language used when talking about diabetes, and for the way it has the power to shape our thoughts, beliefs and behaviours. I support this wholeheartedly – both online and off. To quote Diabetes Australia’s Language Position Statement:

“Language needs to engage people with diabetes and support their daily self-care efforts. Importantly, language that de-motivates or induces fear, guilt or distress needs to be avoided and countered.”

I can’t help but feel that a campaign focussing on diabetes amputations does induce fear, guilt and distress, and contradicts this language position statement. Two diabetes educators in our community even went further to suggest this:

“In my practice I’ll be working with newly diagnosed and people who have had diabetes for years and dealing with the heightened anxiety that comes from the strong messaging around this. Powerful messaging can do more harm than good and many people choosing this style of awareness campaign are often not at the clinical coal face dealing with the aftermath” – Ann Morris, Facebook.

“Diabetes distress is real and palpable when people talk about their fear of complications – especially in relation to the fear of foot or leg amputation. Fear is further fuelled by the negative campaign being run in this year’s Diabetes Awareness Week. We shouldn’t be surprised if they disengage about their risk or move to a default mode of thinking that they are ‘here for a good time not a long time’, then adopting behaviours that increase complication risk.” – Jayne Lehmann, Ed Health Australia.

Diabetes Australia admirably responded to some of the criticisms of the campaign in a Facebook post on Friday afternoon, which you can read here.

Diabetes Australia were campaigning for a Diabetes Amputation Prevention Initiative from our government to help prevent 85% of diabetes related amputations each year through early detection and proper care. We were also told that the campaign was not really about the person with diabetes, but to help make the broader public more aware of this issue.

While I don’t doubt the seriousness of this issue, I do question whether a very public National Diabetes Week campaign was the appropriate avenue for this lobbying. People don’t know enough about diabetes. People don’t know enough about what it is, what it entails, and how to best support those of us living with the condition. This was supposed to be our week, where we raise awareness and be proud of the condition we live with. A campaign focussing only on one issue – a negative one – does not achieve this. It only creates stigma.

I blogged about National Diabetes Week positively. I vocalised my feelings about the campaign with those around me. I enthusiastically followed the #NDW16 hashtag on Twitter all week. Yet from what I saw, very few people were actually jumping on board. Yes, there were plenty of automated-looking tweets from diabetes and health-related organisations. There were some retweets. However I saw very few people actually jumping in and talking about it.

Diabetes Queensland and Diabetes Victoria were both calling for submissions to their Diabetes Life Hacks and Diabetes Won’t Stop Me campaigns, and I don’t feel that either gathered the momentum they deserved in terms of social media engagement. I would go as far to suggest that even these more positive campaigns were overshadowed by a negative national theme.

Watching many passionately vocalise their feelings (some inappropriately) towards the campaign on Facebook, I couldn’t help but wonder what the outcome would have been if the campaign were a positive one. 

Okay, so the theme was foot health. The underlying message was to look at and take care of your feet. Why not set up a few booths across the city where people could get their feet examined for free? The CBD, universities, shopping centres, etc. Create a cool hashtag, and encourage people to post photos on social media as they’re getting their feet examined. Make an event out of it, and give people something to remember when it’s time for their next foot check.

I thought Diabetes NSW were onto something by staging a Guinness World Record – it’s just a shame that they went with “Standing on One Leg,” which seemingly made a mockery of amputees. 

I personally did not like the theme of this year’s National Diabetes Week. And if the response on social media is anything to go by, Diabetes Australia will need to reconsider their messaging in 2017.

Like This Post? Share It!

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...
Posted in: Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and the Online Community Tagged: Campaigns, Complications, Diabetes, Diabetes Australia, Fear, Media, NDW16

Fear as a Motivator For Health?

May 10, 2016 by Frank 5 Comments

During a diabetes themed episode of Sunday Night this week, I noticed several tweets from Diabetes NSW that had been carefully planted into the #SN7 feed on Twitter (the program’s hashtag). Including this one, which sought to tell us that 7,750 people die from diabetes and related complications each year.

Screen Shot 2016-05-09 at 5.49.35 PM

It’s not the first time I’ve seen these kind of Tweets from Diabetes NSW as of late. During the diabetes community’s I Wish People Knew That Diabetes day last month, Diabetes NSW once again hijacked the feed to fill us in on some of the scary facts.

On both occasions, the Tweets appeared automated and displayed little understanding around the respective hashtags they were hijacking.

After seeing this tactic employed once again on Sunday evening, I couldn’t help but call them out.

Screen Shot 2016-05-09 at 5.50.44 PM

As a member based organisation that supposedly represents and supports people with diabetes, messages like these really do members a disservice. Do messages promoting complications and instilling fear around poorly managed diabetes really motivate individuals to look after their health? I think not. And judging by the reaction I received on Twitter, I am not the only person who feels this way.

While stories like these may be effective on people without diabetes, I feel that they sorely overlook those of us who already live with it. In my opinion, health consequences such as obesity, sugar consumption, physical activity or kidney failure are separate issues that need to be dealt with exclusively from diabetes.

The sad reality is that the wider media eat up the sensationalised stories around the complications and fear surrounding life with diabetes. People without any connection to diabetes make assumptions based on what they see reported. Perhaps that a person with diabetes is not fit to work. That a person with diabetes lives an unhealthy lifestyle. Or in the case of the aforementioned Tweet, that a person with diabetes could drop dead at any given moment!

Yet the positive stories, the ones around people with diabetes being able to live healthy and full lives are often overlooked, or overshadowed by the sensationalised stories. Diabetes NSW were quick to point me to a page of positive “ambassador” stories on their website, including another “Frank” who I reminded them of. Yet I am reminded of this recent post from Melinda at Twice Diabetes. I can’t help but wonder whether they are ambassadors who are truly engaged with the organisation and the community, or just figureheads that are referenced when necessary.

To be fair, Diabetes NSW is not the first organisation to instill these messages. We had the dreadful 280 a Day campaign for Diabetes Week last year in Australia, and more recently we had the very confusing World Health Day.

Shaping the conversation around diabetes in public begins with the organisations who represent us. I only wish we weren’t so hard done by all the time.

Like This Post? Share It!

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...
Posted in: Diabetes Advocacy Tagged: Advocacy, Complications, Diabetes, Fear, Media, Scare Tactics

ABOUT ME

Hi, I'm Frank. Welcome to my blog about life with type 1 diabetes.

RECEIVE NEW POSTS BY E-MAIL

FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

Type 1 Writes

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER

Tweets by FrankSita

RECENT COMMENTS

  • Jan C on Fifteenth lap around the sun.
  • Tony Sangster on Fifteenth lap around the sun.
  • Review: The First Year on Control IQ – Type 1 Writes - Wellness Wealth Craft on A Review of Dexcom G6
  • infofeb9155d4f6 on Holi-daze
  • infofeb9155d4f6 on Holi-daze

THE ARCHIVES

  • May 2025 (1)
  • January 2024 (1)
  • January 2023 (1)
  • April 2021 (2)
  • February 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (6)
  • December 2020 (4)
  • November 2020 (2)
  • October 2020 (3)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (4)
  • July 2020 (9)
  • June 2020 (6)
  • May 2020 (7)
  • April 2020 (6)
  • March 2020 (3)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (8)
  • December 2019 (6)
  • November 2019 (7)
  • October 2019 (6)
  • September 2019 (6)
  • August 2019 (10)
  • July 2019 (6)
  • June 2019 (7)
  • May 2019 (7)
  • April 2019 (4)
  • February 2019 (3)
  • January 2019 (3)
  • December 2018 (7)
  • November 2018 (9)
  • October 2018 (10)
  • September 2018 (10)
  • August 2018 (12)
  • July 2018 (12)
  • June 2018 (10)
  • May 2018 (10)
  • April 2018 (11)
  • March 2018 (6)
  • February 2018 (10)
  • January 2018 (10)
  • December 2017 (10)
  • November 2017 (10)
  • October 2017 (5)
  • September 2017 (10)
  • August 2017 (13)
  • July 2017 (13)
  • June 2017 (6)
  • May 2017 (13)
  • April 2017 (8)
  • March 2017 (11)
  • February 2017 (8)
  • January 2017 (10)
  • December 2016 (6)
  • November 2016 (11)
  • October 2016 (8)
  • September 2016 (9)
  • August 2016 (14)
  • July 2016 (14)
  • June 2016 (14)
  • May 2016 (21)
  • April 2016 (17)
  • March 2016 (14)
  • February 2016 (16)
  • January 2016 (16)
  • December 2015 (13)
  • November 2015 (17)
  • October 2015 (19)
  • September 2015 (19)
  • August 2015 (18)
  • July 2015 (20)
  • June 2015 (18)
  • May 2015 (14)
  • April 2015 (4)
  • March 2015 (1)

CATEGORIES

  • Continuous Glucose Monitors (17)
  • Dealing with Diabetes (112)
  • Diabetes Advocacy (88)
  • Diabetes and Emotions (38)
  • Diabetes and Food (58)
  • Diabetes and Foot Care (1)
  • Diabetes and Healthcare Professionals (51)
  • Diabetes and the Festive Season (17)
  • Diabetes and the Online Community (64)
  • Diabetes and Travel (41)
  • Diabetes at Work (11)
  • Diabetes Blog Week (15)
  • Diabetes Burnout (25)
  • Diabetes Gear (8)
  • Diabetes Musings (316)
  • Diabetes Tech (55)
  • Diagnosis (25)
  • Glucose Monitoring (21)
  • Hypos (22)
  • Insulin Pumps (81)
  • Multiple Daily Injections (35)
  • Peer Support (24)
  • Physical Activity (5)
  • Studying With Diabetes (1)
  • T1 Talk (3)
  • Talking About Diabetes (2)

Copyright © 2025 Type 1 Writes - Diabetes Blog.

Lifestyle WordPress Theme by themehit.com

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: