A focus on with DESMOND Isle of Man
It’s Diabetes Week 2022 and an opportunity to share our latest ‘A focus on…’, we catch up with the DESMOND team on the Isle of Man.
Provided through Manxcare health service based at Douglas hospital and currently funded by Diabetes Isle of Man, Ruth Ward, Dietitian, shares the teams story with us. During 2016 the Isle of Man experienced the same percentage of people being diagnosed with diabetes as the UK, however, numbers wise, this was deemed quite small. At the time there was not an established programme on the Isle of Man focussing on patient structured education.
Diabetes Lead Jan Clark and Dietitian Ruth Ward were aware that there was nothing available to refer people to, except the occasional referral to dietitians.
Whilst at the Diabetes Professional Conference (DPC) that same year, Jan and Ruth saw the DESMOND exhibition stand and initiated conversations with Bernie Stribling, New Business: DESMOND. With funding coming from a local charity, Diabetes Isle of Man, the team were able to start delivering, with the charity offering to fund the starter kits and participant resources.
In 2018, Hannah Stoutt joined the team as well. By 2021, the DESMOND team had grown to four Educators and they are currently running courses once a month for a full day.
Since 2016 over 600 people with type 2 diabetes have attended one of their groups and currently time from diagnosis to attending a DESMOND group is approximately four months. Ruth and the team are hoping to offer patient groups at different locations in the near future to reduce the waiting time. Currently, DESMOND groups are only offered as face-to-face at Douglas hospital.
After receiving a referral, the team use an opt-in system, where a letter is sent to anyone referred and giving them the option to call to book a place. At the moment the team have a 50% opt-in rate; with the majority of patients being newly diagnosed.
Ruth and the team recognise that there is some room for improvement and are looking at ways they can increase promotion of the service across the island in particular by offering courses at different locations and times more suitable for the working population. With diabetes now being a priority pathway on the Isle of Man, under the Health Transformation Project, the team are confident more resources will be put into prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes in the future enabling greater capacity for the provision of DESMOND groups.
The team are optimistic about the future of the service, and report that the DESMOND patient groups are well referred into from across ten GPs. Future goals involve being able to increase provision of current DESMOND groups as well as training and rollout of type 2 prevention programmes as well.
Ruth Ward, Dietetic Services Manager comments:
“I have been working as a Dietitian in diabetes for many years but have only been delivering DESMOND for the past six years. I love being part of the DESMOND delivery team on the Isle of Man and can directly see how participants grow in knowledge throughout the course of the day and the positivity that brings with it. The feedback we have reassures me that DESMOND and its other programmes are worth investing in for the future on the Isle of Man.”
Covid-19 timeline
March 2020 – June 2020
The first lockdown cancelled four months of delivery for the Isle of Man team. MyDESMOND was made available free of charge, the team had an increase in individual phone consultations.
July 2020 - January 2021
Restrictions were lifted for the Isle of Man and people living with diabetes were able to be rebooked for face-to-face groups.
January 2021 – April 2021
New lockdown restrictions, and the team continue with MyDESMOND only.
May 2021 – onwards
The team resumed operating face-to-face groups. With the addition of covid-19 screening prior to attendance, as well as, encouraging people to attend on their own for infection prevention purposes.
As a result of the pandemic, some of the activities within the group were adapted, in particular the label reading activities; the items are now handed out to people in their seats and having discussions around these. Resources are sanitised regularly.
Feedback from DESMOND Isle of Man attendees
“Lots of helpful information and tips, knowledgeable and friendly staff, good group participation. Easy access and parking lots of advice.”
“Ruth and Pam were very informative and knowledgeable and explained things well.”
”They put the group at ease and I felt able to discuss my knowledge, insecurities without judgement.”
“Being in a group meant we could support each other and discuss our experiences.”
”Information was clear. I left the day feeling more confident about managing my diabetes.”
”The information helped me eliminate some of the myths around what you can, cannot eat.”
”Very informative meetings, I would encourage anyone with a new diagnosis to attend this.”