5 July 2023

The Health and Wellbeing practitioner reflects on how his lived experience motivates his role with the young adult diabetes team and how a dietician inspired his ethos.

What is your role?

I work as a Health and Wellbeing Practitioner with the young adult diabetes team. My job is fairly broad; it involves aiding with engagement, 1 to 1 work and facilitating groups, working with both type 1 and type 2 patients. 

I like to think of myself as the point of contact or the “friendly face/ bridge” between patient and health team.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

The thing I enjoy most about my role is the satisfaction I get from helping young adults reach a point of confidence with their diabetes, that they felt that they would never reach. Nothing is more rewarding than when you introduce yourself to a newly diagnosed patient and you can clearly see that they are really struggling with management, expectations and feel like their life has been put on hold. Through 1 to 1 sessions and being the friendly face of clinic, you can see how their hope slowly increases. Empowering them to take control of their life and continue to live a happy and fulfilling life.

What inspired you to get into this work?

As a type 1 diabetic myself, I have personal experience in dealing and managing diabetes. I know how difficult and tasking it is. When I was first diagnosed, I did not have the best experience. I remember feeling like my whole world was crashing in on me and I felt a lot of resentment and anger towards myself, my body and life in general. This cumulated in me not being the best controlled diabetic and really struggling with my emotions, I felt like I had been left alone to deal with a long-term health condition I that did nothing to deserve. In my lowest moment I began absconding my appointments and not taking my insulin. My local dietician insisted I come in to be seen after missing many appointments, I did everything to avoid this; making excuses and doing anything in my power not to face my situation.

This dietician was kind enough to visit me at home and spoke with me candidly but also in a way that no health professional had ever spoken to me. I slowly re-engaged with my health, thanks to them and now years later have never been healthier. This made me aware of how there are many people that feel the way I felt, and I decided I wanted to put myself in a situation where I could help those who need the help most. Like I once needed. This experienced has both shaped how I work with patients and how I approach my work; and I am forever grateful for it.

What are the benefits of working in partnership?

Hospitals and Trusts are all split via boroughs, but community transcends all of that. Working across sites has shown me how there is so much overlap between them all. This gives me the ability to take a lot of the burden and stress off patients. It also gives me an insight into how different teams across London work. Taking a little from each organisation and bringing it back to each team to make services stronger, faster, and more effective. All of this helps those who need our support the most, giving them the mindfulness and confidence needed to tackle something as life-altering as diabetes.

What would be your one career top tip to staff and students?

One career top tip I’d give is to never give up on any patient and to always try give our patients’ time. We are all fighting our battles, and some of us are able to stand our ground better than others. It can be very daunting and scary to speak to a health care professional; and this is something we take for granted.

The KHP Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity teams works to improve health and wellbeing for people living with diabetes, obesity and endocrine disorders across London, south east England and beyond. Visit its webpages here.