Diabetes Northamptonshire

The countywide Diabetes Northamptonshire multidisciplinary team promotes self-management to avoid acute and long-term complications of diabetes through 1-1 and group education contacts with individuals who have diabetes. We also offer telephone and email support for people with diabetes and their carers.

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Information on Diabetes courses

Newly diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes

Newly diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes

DESMOND is a group course for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the last nine months).

The course is delivered face-to-face or via video call and covers:

  • Understanding diabetes and glucose: what happens in the body
  • Understanding more about monitoring and medication
  • Understanding the risk factors and complications associated with diabetes
  • How to take control - Food Choices - Physical Activity
  • Planning for future

All courses are under the supervision of healthcare professionals and diabetes educators.

MyDESMOND is an interactive digital platform for people with type 2 diabetes designed to support and educate through videos, activities, and quizzes, offers opportunities for people with type 2 diabetes to speak with others from across the UK and Ireland to share ideas and gain peer support. Translated languages include Bengali and Hindi

 

Group Education for People with Type 2 Diabetes

Group Education for People with Type 2 Diabetes

This group education course has been developed with the aim of increasing knowledge and confidence in self-managing Type 2 Diabetes. The course takes an interactive approach and enables participants to create a personal self-management plan.

Session 1: Diabetes and Carbohydrate Awareness

Topics covered in this session include:

  • What is diabetes?
  • Diabetes medication
  • Monitoring, targets, and hypoglycaemia
  • Healthy eating with diabetes
  • The 4 steps to carbohydrate awareness

Session 2: Living Well and Eating Well with Diabetes

Topics covered in this session include:

  • Eating well with diabetes (including meal plans)
  • Healthy weight
  • Reducing the risk of long-term effects
  • Physical activity
  • Emotional eating

 

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes

DAFNE stands for Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating. It aims to help adults with type 1 diabetes lead as normal life as possible, whilst also maintaining blood glucose levels within healthy targets to reduce the risk of long-term diabetes complications.

There are different ways in which you can complete a DAFNE course, either on a face-to-face DAFNE course or a Remote DAFNE course.

On a face-to-face course, you will attend a 5-day training course (either Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, or one day per week for 5 weeks), with follow-up sessions after the course.

Remote DAFNE courses are an option for people who feel that a face-to-face course is not for them.   The Remote DAFNE course will take 5 weeks to complete. It includes online learning from home each week and weekly group video support calls with other participants as well as follow up sessions after the course.

All courses are under the supervision of DAFNE-trained educators (who are specially trained NHS diabetes specialist nurses and dietitians).

 

People with Learning Disabilities or Cognitive Impairment: Looking After Me and My Diabetes

Looking After Me and My Diabetes

This course can support adults to improve their understanding of diabetes. Adults and their carers/ supporters attend together. The course provides self-management education including:

  • learn how to make healthier food choices
  • learn more about keeping fit
  • learn about medication
  • learn more about health checks for your diabetes

Virtual Carbohydrate counting and insulin dose adjustment course

Virtual Carbohydrate counting and insulin dose adjustment course

The Virtual Carbohydrate Counting Course is delivered over 2-sessions and can act as an introduction or refresher to carbohydrate counting. It develops the skill required to support people with Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes (if taking both background insulin and quick acting insulin with food) to learn to carbohydrate count accurately.

The Virtual Insulin Dose Adjustment course is a further 2 sessions which covers the principles of adjusting your insulin in different situations.

 

Additional information around diabetes

Paediatrics and Diabetes

Paediatrics and Diabetes

This service is for managing children and adolescents (young people) with diabetes whose care is different from those for adults. Children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes become more aggressive in identifying goals and negotiating plans with families to meet standards and target HbAC1 levels. Treatment plans are sometimes successful, but often they fall short because of multiple factors. These challenges require deeper exploration to identify sources of barriers to treatment and more effective strategies for motivation and behaviour change.

Factors that contribute to paediatric challenges include normal growth and development, psychological characteristics, health status, family dynamics (including socioeconomic status and cultural considerations), and care outside of the home, such as in the school setting. These components increase the intricacy of caring for paediatric patients in general, and the addition of a chronic condition often further increases the complexity.

Pregnancy and diabetes

Pregnancy and diabetes

Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar (glucose) that develops during pregnancy and usually disappears after giving birth.

It can happen at any stage of pregnancy, but is more common in the second or third trimester.

It happens when your body cannot produce enough insulin - a hormone that helps control blood sugar levels - to meet your extra needs in pregnancy.

Gestational diabetes can cause problems for you and your baby during pregnancy and after birth. But the risks can be reduced if the condition is detected early and well managed.

You can download an information leaflet about gestational diabetes by clicking on the links:

Pregnancy with gestational diabetes information leaflet[pdf] 442KB