Health
Calls for access to diabetes psychology across Wales to end ‘unfair postcode lottery’
TO MARK Diabetes Week (June 13-19), Diabetes UK Cymru is launching a campaign to highlight the inequalities faced by many living with diabetes when accessing psychology services.
In some areas, people living with diabetes do not have access to psychological support and they either have to wait years or are referred to services that are not specialised in diabetes.
The charity is proposing that a new model of support is to be made available to everyone living with diabetes in Wales. And so is endorsing “From Missing to Mainstream” – A Values-Based Action Plan for Diabetes Psychology in Wales” by Consultant Clinical Psychologist (Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board) and Diabetes UK Clinical Champion, Dr Rose Stewart.
Diabetes UK Cymru is hosting a Senedd event to launch this report and campaign with the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Lynne Neagle MS, sponsored by the Shadow Minister for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Mid Wales, James Evans MS at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff on June 15 at 8.30 am.
Dr Rose Stewart said: “Managing diabetes is relentless, demanding, and complex. People living with diabetes have higher levels of psychological issues such as anxiety and depression as well as diabetes-related disordered eating (diabulimia), diabetes distress, and burnout. We are proposing that diabetes psychology should become mainstream, embedded in routine care, accessible and flexible so that people living with diabetes feel supported in managing their condition wherever they live.”
Poet and rapper, Duke Al Durham, a supporter of the charity will talk about his experience of living with type 1 diabetes and mental health issues, including OCD, and read his poem “Burn Out” at the Senedd event.
Young mum with type 1 diabetes resorts to paying for private psychotherapy
Ebony Hussey, 30, from Caldicot lives with type 1 diabetes and has suffered loss of sight in one eye, as a complication of her condition. This and other struggles associated with diabetes, juggling two young children, and work affected her mental health. She has resorted to paying for private therapy since she’s unable to get access to a psychologist on the NHS.
“Diabetes is overwhelming and exhausting. I also suffered further complications due to my condition as some people do even when they are young. That’s why I decided to get CBT therapy privately. I was never offered any psychological help. It’s all focused on stats: if your blood sugar levels are good, then you are left to get on with it”, she explained.
Diabetes UK Cymru’s National Director, Rachel Burr said: “Psychological support has been missing from diabetes services for too long to the detriment of those living with diabetes, their families, and the care teams who support them, and the COVID19 pandemic only made matters worse. Diabetes is serious, affecting 1 in 13 people in Wales and the demands of living with diabetes can be extremely tough. It impacts every aspect of a person’s life. Access to psychological support in Wales is either non-existent, patchy, disjointed, underfunded, understaffed, or a postcode lottery. That has to change.”
From Missing to Mainstream: addressing the growing demand for diabetes psychology
The need for psychological services was recognised in the Welsh Government’s most recent Diabetes Delivery Plan (2016 to 2021), which estimated that 41% of people living with diabetes in Wales are believed to have poor psychological wellbeing.
The “From Missing to Mainstream” campaign builds on the “Too often missing. Making emotional and psychological routine in diabetes care” report published in 2019.
Of those surveyed then who had felt they needed specialist care from a mental health professional, 7 in 10 couldn’t access it.
Under the Diabetes Delivery Plan, Local Health Boards were required to ensure that sufficient psychological input into the management of all patients is. But at present NHS Wales sets itself no measurable targets on the delivery of psychological support to those with long-term conditions, with a huge variance in service delivery across the nation. Furthermore, many of the services that provide psychological support are already at breaking point and in desperate need of more resources. We are waiting on the publication of robust Quality Statements with accompanying action plans to set out the expectations for delivery of psychological support for diabetes. These cannot come soon enough.
Diabetes UK Cymru aims to relaunch this campaign and gather further data on the impact of the lack of psychological support on people living with diabetes.
Dr Rose Stewart’s report was commissioned by the All Wales Diabetes Implementation Group, which brings together diabetes specialist doctors and nurses, NHS managers, third sector, and other stakeholders in consultation with patients.
To register and to find out more about the event go to: From Missing to Mainstream; Diabetes Psychology in Wales Tickets, Wed 15 Jun 2022 at 08:30 | Eventbrite
Health
Chairman opens new NHS 111 Wales Service Centre in Haverfordwest
IN a ceremonial occasion on Thursday (May 2), Thomas Baden Tudor, Chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council, inaugurated the new NHS 111 Wales service centre at Haverfordwest Ambulance Station. The event was marked by Mr. Tudor cutting the red ribbon, a task he was honoured to perform at the behest of Matthew Jones, Locality Manager of the Pembrokeshire Ambulance Service.
The NHS 111 service, which is accessible round the clock, offers urgent health advice and information about available services, including dental care and general medical guidance. This vital resource also provides support on managing illnesses and conditions and ensures continuity of care when GP offices are closed.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Tudor expressed his pride and privilege in participating in the launch, which underscores the community’s commitment to enhancing healthcare accessibility. The new service centre is expected to play a pivotal role in providing prompt medical advice and support to the residents of Pembrokeshire.
The service is free and can be reached by dialling 111 from any phone, ensuring essential healthcare advice is just a call away.
Health
Junior doctors secure strike extension in pay negotiations with WG
BMA Cymru Wales has confirmed a positive development in its pay negotiations announcing that Junior doctors have secured a three-month extension to their overwhelming strike mandate.
This means that junior doctors in Wales now have the right to enact industrial action over their pay until 17 September 2024 instead of 17 June when the mandate was due to run out.
Recognising the strength of feeling amongst junior doctors and the overwhelming 98% vote by members in favour of industrial action back in December 2023, employers have agreed to honour this extension to allow talks with the Welsh Government to continue.
Co-chairs of the Welsh Junior Doctor Committee Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey said of this development:
“We are pleased to be able to secure an extension to our overwhelming strike mandate. Whilst we hope to put an end to our pay dispute through pay negotiations by reaching a credible deal and restoring our pay, it was important to secure more time for our mandate.
“The extension allows us to focus on talks but also provides us with the scope to get organised and enact our legal right to strike should we need to. This is about honouring the emphatic mandate of our members.
“Doctors have experienced real terms pay cut of almost a third since 2008. They voted overwhelmingly to put an end to the devaluing of their service, they know they are not worth a third less than their predecessors and they know the time is now to stick up for the profession and turn the tide of the continued erosion of their pay once and for all”.
The Welsh Government and NHS employers have agreed to the extension as part of ongoing pay negotiations where all parties hope to reach an end to the pay dispute with junior doctors, SAS doctors and Consultants in Wales.
Last month, BMA Cymru Wales announced it was suspending forthcoming industrial action for Consultants and SAS doctors and putting plans on hold to announce more strike dates for junior doctors to allow pay negotiations to take place*.
The decision to enter pay negotiations was based on a significant proposal from the Welsh Government to form the basis of talks to end the pay disputes with all secondary care doctors including Consultants, SAS, and Junior doctors, with the aim of reaching deals which can be taken separately to their respective members.
In August last year, the BMA’s committees representing secondary care doctors in Wales voted to enter separate trade disputes with the Welsh Government after being offered another below inflation pay uplift of just 5% for the 23/24 financial year. SAS doctors on some contracts were offered as little as 1.5%. This was the lowest pay offer any government in the UK offered and less than the DDRB, the pay review body for doctors and dentists, recommended last year.
As part of their disputes, SAS doctors, consultants and junior doctors carried out successful ballots for industrial action. Since then, junior doctors have taken part in 10 days of industrial action since January this year.
Community
Plea to save at-risk Anchorage day care centre
AN ONLINE plea to save a Pembrokeshire day centre from being closed has been lodged with the county council.
The Anchorage Day Care Centre in Pembroke Dock has been a “safe and happy place” for adults with learning difficulties and additional needs for decades.
In more recent years it has expanded to support elderly dementia sufferers.
But now the centre is expected to close, with services instead being offered elsewhere in the county, including Haverfordwest and Milford Haven.
A series of engagement events have taken place at The Anchorage recently, outlining the reasons and the options in continued service.
One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “The parents and carers are all very upset at the way we have been treated, kept in the dark and then presented with what is a fait accompli to close the Anchorage, while at the same time going through the motions of a ‘consultation’ with us.
“The clients at The Anchorage have friendships with each other and staff going back decades in some cases.
“One young woman who attends ran out of the first meeting sobbing when she was told it was going to close. Another, at the second meeting, tried to address the meeting but was so chocked up at the thought of not seeing her friends anymore she could hardly speak.”
She added: “The Anchorage has been a respite in the day for parents and a safe, happy place for the clients.
“Everyone feels that the county council is not considering the feelings of the clients, most of whom are upset and frightened by change to their routine.”
Another person raising concerns said: “The centre is set to close as early as next month – meaning the sudden retraction of a service which, for many families in the area, is nothing short of a lifeline.
“I’m not sure PCC understand the gravity of the impact that closing the centre will have on the lives of many people, particularly the customers, some of whom may not understand or cope well with such a total upheaval of the familiarity of their daily routine.
“It’s so upsetting that the people who will be most affected by the closure of the centre are as much a part of the Pembrokeshire community as anybody else that the council claims to represent, and yet in this decision, I feel they’re not being seen as such.”
Since then, an online e-petition, on the council’s own website has been launched calling for it to stay open.
It says: “The centre provides day-care support to a number of vulnerable adults with varying levels of disability who are unable to process, and understand, the implications of such a decision.
“Some of those attending the centre have been doing so for over 20 years and continuity is a vital part of their lives. Removing this service will have nothing other than a huge detrimental impact on their health and mental wellbeing.”
The petition has attracted 284 signatures to date.
A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesman said: “Following the engagement sessions held with families and service users regarding the future of the centre on April 10 and 17 at the Anchorage, families said that they would like to maintain the Anchorage Day Centre and explained that they would write to the council in order to ask for the decision to be overturned.
“People who attend the service will be offered alternative care, all service users are currently having their individual care needs assessed by social work teams to fully understand which other services best meet those care needs.”
-
News5 days ago
Police investigating after woman found dead on beach near Pennar
-
News5 days ago
Police discover body in search for Luke Stephenson, 19
-
News5 days ago
Councillors block Milford Haven boxing event – promoter to appeal
-
Crime6 days ago
Llandissilio man accused of making hundreds of child abuse images
-
News4 days ago
Beautiful, funny and lovely: Family pay tribute to Sian Batchelor
-
Business6 days ago
Lidl GB eyes Pembroke Dock for new larger supermarket
-
News6 days ago
Search efforts continue for missing teenager Luke Stephenson
-
Business18 hours ago
Dragon LNG explores integration of LNG and CO2 liquefaction processes