The Australian Diabetes Society (ADS) is a recognised Health Professional Agent of the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS). The NDSS is an initiative of the Australian Government and is administered by Diabetes Australia. ADS receives funding from the NDSS to deliver educational and clinically evidenced-based diabetes related projects that benefit health professionals working in public hospital settings and private clinics in managing and treating people living with diabetes. All projects featured below are NDSS resources developed by the ADS.
Revised ADS Diabetes in Hospital Publications
Caring for Yourself While In Hospital: A guide for people with diabetes.
Why is the care of diabetes in hospital important? Regardless of the reason for your admission to hospital, it is important that your diabetes is well managed. Always let your nurses and treating doctors know that you have diabetes. Managing your blood glucose levels (BGLs) before, during, and after your stay in hospital will help to ensure that you are able to return to or improve your usual level of health as soon as possible.
Healthcare Providers’ Guide to Diabetes Management for Inpatients
Why is optimal diabetes management in hospital important? Diabetes is a frequent co-morbidity amongst hospital inpatients. Up to 40% of hospital inpatients may have diabetes. It is common for blood glucose levels to become unstable when a patient is in hospital. Significantly, high blood glucose levels in hospital have been associated with higher infection rates, poorer wound healing and increased mortality.
The new guidelines and this toolkit is designed for health professionals and disciplines caring for Australians with diabetes-related foot disease and diabetes-related foot ulcers in secondary and tertiary health care settings in Australia. This resource was funded by the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS), an initiative of the Australian Government and administered by Diabetes Australia, in partnership with Diabetes Feet Australia and the Australian Diabetes Society.
The toolkit covers the guidelines:
prevention
wound classification
peripheral artery disease
infection
offloading
wound healing interventions
and includes:
an overview of each guideline
recommendations for each guideline
implementation and monitoring considerations
considerations for the Australian context
practical pathways for each guideline to help optimise the implementation of the recommendations.
The aim of the Diabetes Models of Care (MoC) project is to create a practical toolkit of examples of various models of care that may assist health practitioners across Australia review and consider revisions of their own current MoC for managing people with type 2 diabetes. The target audience of health professionals includes general practitioners, endocrinologists, diabetes educators, health services managers and other multidisciplinary practitioners across the spectrum of health-care.
There is strong evidence supporting lifestyle and medical management programmes to improve outcome measures and quality of life for people with diabetes. Many people with diabetes often have other co-morbidities, including (but not limited to) obesity, cardiovascular disease, renal, eye and foot disease, that manifest into a complex array of treatments highlighting the need for a multidisciplinary and comprehensive diabetes management approach.
The essential ingredient of effective diabetes management in an interdisciplinary system of care is the empowerment of the person with diabetes to become engaged to actively manage their health. When people with diabetes (and often their carers) are more informed, involved, and empowered, they interact more effectively with healthcare providers and strive to take actions that will promote healthier outcomes.
There are many MoC being used within diabetes services across Australia. Many of these models promote the importance of integrated care across health professional disciplines and have been successfully implemented into practice. However, more needs to be done to improve integrated and collaborative care nationally. One such area that needs improving is the collection of outcome measures that could lead to the identification of which primary care attributes support high quality care for people with diabetes.
This toolkit will focus on MoC for the management of type 2 diabetes, concentrating on integrated care from primary to specialist care, and include models that target diabetes complications, screening and management. The models illustrated in this document are not a complete list and have been included as examples only. It is anticipated that any MoC can be adapted to the local population and workplace.
This toolkit is designed to be a ‘living document’ and will be added to, edited and revised over time. As such, the document will only be up to date at the time of access or download.
Revised versions of this publication will be announced through NADC and NDSS online resources and available on their respective websites: NADC, ADS and NDSS.
NADC Collaborative Interdisciplinary Diabetes High-Risk Foot Service (HRFS) Standards
This NADC Collaborative for Interdisciplinary High-Risk Foot Services is a highly inclusive process, which under the NADC Foot Network has received formal input from key national diabetes foot care organisations, to realise the Interdisciplinary Diabetes High Risk Foot Services Standards of Care herein, which we now commend to you. The mission of the NADC Foot Network is to establish and maintain reduced morbidity and mortality caused by diabetes-related foot disease in people in Australia. One of the first steps in this process is to establish and then maintain National Standards of care for Interdisciplinary HRFS, providing standards for these services and the health professional working within them, to be guided by. Few countries globally have developed national standards for Interdisciplinary Diabetes HRFS, and it is anticipated that these Standards will help to realise and then to maintain a high level of diabetes HRFS care throughout our nation, aiding equity of access, and underpinning more consistent across-service outcomes in diabetes foot care.
Enhancing Your Consulting Skills – Supporting self-management and optimising mental health in people with type 1 diabetes
Support by health professionals to help people with type 1 diabetes to optimise both their diabetes self-management and their mental health is critical, but the skills involved are not necessarily intuitive. Although there is evidence that these skills can be defined and acquired, just as in any other area of clinical expertise, there have been few resources available in Australia to help health professionals develop the required expertise. The training resource “Enhancing Your Consulting Skills: Supporting Self-Management and Optimising Mental Health in People with Type 1 diabetes” has been created to help meet this educational need. It has been specifically developed for advanced trainees in adult endocrinology in Australia, but will also be a helpful reference for their supervisors and other interested health professionals involved in diabetes care.
The development of this resource has been a combined initiative of the Australian Diabetes Society (ADS), the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) and Diabetes Australia (DA). The lead author, A/Professor Jennifer Conn (Endocrinologist) and a former member of the ADS Council and Chair of its Health Professional Education Committee. Other major contributors have been Dr Christel Hendrieckx (clinical psychologist) and Dr Carol Silberberg (liaison psychiatrist).
It is now available in electronic format through at: https://www.diabetessociety.com.au/wpcontent/uploads/2023/04/Consulting_Skills_16_2_16-PDF.pdf It can be downloaded free of charge for individual use. Please note that the content in the resource cannot be copied or reproduced without the prior consent of the Australian Diabetes Society. Hard copies of the resource are available from the ADS Secretariat.
Citation: Conn JJ, Silberberg CL, Henrieckx C, Nankervis AJ, Cheung NW, Jenkins AJ, on behalf of the Australian Diabetes Society. Enhancing your consulting skills – supporting self-management and optimising mental health in people with type 1 diabetes. Canberra: National Diabetes Services Scheme; 2014
Promoting Optimal Diabetes Foot Care
Diabetes-related foot complications affect at least 15% of all individuals with diabetes. They are the most common cause of lower limb amputation in developed countries and are the leading cause of hospitalisation for this patient group. Recent national data suggest that a lower limb is lost due to diabetes every two hours, with this rate increasing by 30% over the past decade.
Enhancing the clinical skills of health professionals in relation to foot care is an important strategy for preventing serious diabetic foot complications. This involves ensuring that health professionals can perform foot examinations for risk stratification, promote preventive foot care and manage basic diabetes-related foot complications. Health professionals also need to know when to refer individuals to specialist inter-disciplinary diabetic foot care units.
“Promoting Optimal Diabetes Foot Care” is a set of audio-visual resources based on national and international guidelines. The resources have been designed to help health professionals develop the clinical skills required to deliver high quality foot care to people with diabetes. The set is comprised of three learning modules:
If you have diabetes, you can hold a driver’s licence or learner permit if your diabetes is well managed.
The main concern for licensing authorities is the possibility of hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose) while driving. Diabetes-related complications like eye or feet problems are also of a concern as it affects your ability to drive safely.
