"Diabetes and You": A multidisciplinary approach to education for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes

People with diabetes have to make multiple daily choices about the management of their condition, often with minimal input from a their healthcare professional. The necessary lifestyle changes, the complexities of management and the side effects of therapy make education a central part of diabetes management and it is recommended that structured education is made available to all people with diabetes at the time of initial diagnosis and on an ongoing basis This article describes how a number of multidisciplinary teams, across three NHS trusts, collaborated to standardise education for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. A previously developed structured education programme, "Diabetes and You", was re-evaluated to the meet the needs of the local population.