Nutrition and lifestyle interventions for people with diabetes

Hywel Dda University Health Board’s Nutrition and Dietetic service has expanded the support and education it can offer to people with diabetes.

For people with type 1 diabetes, the service can now offer:

• A Dietitian-led group sessions looking at increasing carbohydrate counting skills (either a one-off three one-hour session, or two one-and-a-half sessions).
• 1:1 consultation with a diabetes specialist dietitian.
• DAFNE* & DAFNE Pump (*Dose adjustment for normal eating)- This includes five structured education sessions with a diabetes specialist nurse and diabetes specialist dietitian. Remote sessions are three hours, plus additional reading time. Face-to-face sessions run from 9am-5pm.

*People should be under secondary diabetes care to be considered for DAFNE.

Meanwhile, for those individuals with type 2 diabetes, the service can offer:

• A one-off two-hour structured group education session -for first line dietary and lifestyle information discussing carbohydrates, healthy balanced diet, exercise, and weight management – only for those newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (less than three months from diagnosis).
• Diabetes Remission programme via an intensive nutritional and lifestyle intervention for motivated individuals hoping to achieve remission.
• 1:1 consultation with a dietitian for individuals who do not wish to participate in group education or have complexity in managing their type 2 diabetes.
• Comprehensive six-week XPERT / XPERT Insulin Structured Education programme – available as either face-to-face or virtual options.

Laura Jones, Clinical Lead Diabetes Dietitian at Hywel Dda University Health Board, said: “Nutrition and lifestyle education is fundamental for the management of both Type 1 & Type 2 Diabetes. Our aim as a dietetic service is to be able to offer a suite of options, so people with diabetes can feel empowered to self-manage their condition after receiving vital education and support from our team. We’re really proud to offer these additional services across the three counties.”

To Refer to any of the above please use the community Nutrition and Dietetics referral form. Or for further information, call 01437 774334 of email DiabetesDietitians.HDD@wales.nhs.uk.