The symptoms

You’ll be best equipped to manage your diabetes on a day-to-day basis if you’re given information and education when you’re diagnosed and then on an ongoing basis.

In 2001, the Department of Health published a national service framework for Diabetes. The purpose of this was to improve the standards of care for everyone with diabetes. The national service framework says that people with diabetes should have information and education to help them self care.

What is structured patient education?
Structured patient education means that there's a planned course that:

• covers all aspects of diabetes,
• is flexible in content,
• is relevant to a person’s clinical and psychological needs, and
• is adaptable to a person’s educational and cultural background.

How do I know if I am receiving good structured education?
The Department of Health together with Diabetes UK set up a group to support good structured education. The group has developed some guidance and published a report so that you can judge whether the education you're getting about your diabetes is of a high standard. If you're not sure, you should ask your diabetes team.

A good planned education course should:

• Provide a written outline, so that you can see what will be taught on the course.
• Be delivered by trained educators. As a minimum the course should be given by someone who understands the principles of patient education and has been assessed as competent to teach the programme.
• Be quality assured to make sure it's of a consistently high standard.
• Provide the opportunity for feedback to show that it's making a difference to the people who go on it.

What course should I go on?
You need to go on a course that meets your needs and will support you. Different courses will suit different people, depending on things such as what type of diabetes they have, and how long they have had it.

• Courses should reflect established methods of adult learning and the curriculum should be clearly written down.
• Courses should be run by appropriately trained professionals from a variety of backgrounds (such as nurses and dietitians) to groups of people with diabetes, unless group work is considered unsuitable for an individual.
• Sessions should be accessible to the broadest range of people, taking into account the person’s culture, ethnicity, any disability they might have and where they live.
• Sessions should be held locally, for instance in a community setting or local diabetes centre.
• Courses should use a variety of teaching styles to promote active learning, where everyone gets involved and can relate what they're learning to their own experiences.
• Courses should be adapted to meet the different needs, personal choices and learning styles of people with diabetes.
• Education should become part of your normal diabetes care.

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