Virtual group diabetes programmes - myth or magic?
The benefits of remote group diabetes programmes.
I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who is notoriously difficult to convince … on just about anything – rock bands, movies, tv shows, football players, you name it … until I have experienced it for myself.
One day recently, I’m coming out of my local pharmacy, through those unpredictable automatic doors, when I meet a friend I usually only see down the football.
‘What you doing here?’ – he says to me. ‘Coz I’m not well … like most of people here’… we share a chuckle … ‘Same here’ he replies with a smile and a grin.
We trade friendly banter – that’s what supporting the same football team does to you. Then all of a sudden my friend opens up the conversation … we shuffle away from the drafty doorway.
Over the years, it’s become my ‘dubious privilege’ to become fairly well known in my area about diabetes … the ensuing brief encounter proved to unlock the mystery of virtual or remote group diabetes programmes.
At a recent health screening, my friend discovered he was ‘pre-diabetic’ – his words not mine. Never one to miss and opportunity I chipped in … ‘you have pre-diabetes’. The old nugget of the blood test had captured that his HbA1C was ‘off limits’.
To my surprise he wasn’t downbeat about it – quite the opposite … you take the setbacks on the chin at the football.
He went on to describe how he had lost almost two stone (13 kgs) through changing his diet, eating healthily, and radically lowering his carbohydrate intake. His old ‘start of day’ breakfast routine is there sitting on his shelves as a constant reminder of ‘what used to be’.
Seems that some old habits can actually die easily.
Then, lo and behold, and with great enthusiasm, he grabs his phone and shows me a whole plethora of text reminders to check in on a call conference with a ‘Virtual Group’ of around 15 people … organised by, the providers of the Healthier You NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP) in North West London, Xyla Health and Wellbeing … Xyla are big into virtual group sessions for the programmes they provide.
He described these sessions, as being an integral part of restoring his BMI (Body Mass Index) to his target healthier level.
Yes, there are dogs barking and televisions blaring in the call background … yet these group sessions really work.
Then, would you believe it … our brief conversation closed with him saying he was actually looking forward to his next pre-diabetes review.
This for me confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt, remote group diabetes programmes do happen, they really work and, most of all, change lives with a very positive outcome..
In life as in football, you are never more vulnerable than you think you are doing well. Stories like these are data with a soul.
Everyone should take confidence to step forward when the opportunity arises, to participate with virtual group diabetes programmes.
Best of all, it’s from the comfort of your own home. Genius!
