Thanks to our aging and increasingly inactive population, type 2 diabetes is a more prevalent wellbeing risk than ever. Many adults are now finding themselves in the position of having to give care to their older relatives whose wellness has been damaged by diabetes.
According to Kathy Honick, RN, CDE, a diabetes educator at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, as a caregiver you need to learn about the disease as much as your patient does, ‘to help provide support to the patient in managing this challenging disease’. Your role will vary depending on the amount of help that your loved one needs. Sometimes all someone with diabetes needs is a bit of support, whilst other diabetics may need a caregiver to do most of their tasks, such as keeping track of their medications. This means, first and foremost, you need to learn how to recognize the symptoms of low or high blood sugar, and also how to test for it.
Tiffany Hester, who cared for her 90-year-old grandmother who had type 2 diabetes, says she had to go to doctor visits with her grandmother, learn how to use various meters and insulin pens, and cook. According to Hester, that experience helped her with her current ‘semi-care’ for her father-in-law, who has borderline diabetes: ‘With the change of diet and the little education I had from my previous experience … he is on the road to weight loss and better living’.
Honick explains that your role as a caregiver ‘is to support the diabetes patient’s efforts to practice the required self-care behaviours by functioning as an active, knowledgeable, and competent participant’. She lists that examples of caregivers’ duties could include ‘following or preparing a healthy meal plan, cuing their loved one to take medications, testing blood sugar, etc.’ as well as sharing the burden of the demands of the disease.
You should be a key part of the health care team, learning what to look for when inspecting your loved one’s feet, encouraging physical activity and healthy eating, and contacting the appropriate team members, if needed. A diabetes educator can help you achieve all of this, so ask your loved one’s doctor, nurse, or clinic workers to make a recommendation, or look online for a diabetes educator in your area.
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