The 14th November is World Diabetes Day, which aims to raise awareness about the condition and how it can impact those affected. In this article, we are highlighting ongoing work that considers how, with proper support, care workers can help people they care for living with diabetes through insulin administration and blood glucose monitoring where they cannot self-administer or for whom other options are not suitable.
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is caused by your body not making enough or any of a hormone called insulin, or the insulin not working properly (insulin resistance). Insulin helps your body use glucose (sugar) for energy. Without it, the level of glucose in your blood becomes too high. If it’s not treated, diabetes can cause further health problems to develop.
Insulin is the main treatment for type 1 diabetes and requires daily administration via injection or a pump and blood sugar monitoring.
Diabetes management can be challenging in a care setting
For people who cannot self-administer insulin, timely support is important. While some care settings have registered nurses on site, others rely on community nursing services. Delays can affect the timing of meals and diabetes management, as well as disrupting everyday routines and activities.
Delegated Health Activities can change this story
With the right training, oversight and support from registered health professionals, care workers and personal assistants can undertake Delegated Health Activities, including blood glucose monitoring and insulin administration. When done safely and appropriately, delegation means people drawing on care and support receive the right care at the right time from care workers they know and trust. For someone who needs support to manage their diabetes, this could mean a trained care worker administering their insulin at the right time, so they can have their meals at a time that works for them, rather than having to wait for nursing support to become available.
Delegated Health Activities benefit care workers too
Delegation also gives care workers the opportunity to learn new specialist skills and develop in their careers, while also gaining experience in delivering personalised care. To lay the foundations for personalised care within the future National Care Service, employers need to ensure that care workers and personal assistants feel confident and supported to take on specialist activities by providing access to training, development opportunities, ongoing support and supervision.
We hope this focus on diabetes management has shown what Delegated Health Activities can mean in practice for people who draw on care and support and the care workforce. You can find out more below about Delegated Health Activities and how we are supporting their safe and effective use.
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