Experts launch diabetes care home training programme

The Institute of Diabetes for Older People (IDOP) has produced a new diabetes care home training and educational course in a bid to improve the current poor standards of care.

In response to a growing demand to raise the quality of diabetes care in care homes, IDOP has developed a comprehensive training programme, including teaching from leading experts, an authoritative workbook and a suite of e-learning modules.

The programme covers such topics as understanding diabetes and treating diabetes, including how to manage a hypoglycaemic episode, as well as issues specifically relating to diabetes in care homes.

Three trainers from the Lancashire Workforce Development Partnership were the first to take part in the training. They received two days of the train-the-trainers programme culminating in assessments with the help of e-learning modules.

Professor Alan Sinclair, IDOP director and programme lead, said: “In many cases older people with diabetes in care homes are suffering unnecessarily and even dying prematurely. Up to one in five older people have diabetes and a similar proportion may have undiagnosed diabetes. More than a quarter of care home residents have diabetes.

“We know diabetes is associated with increasing age, family history, ethnicity, obesity and sedentary lifestyle. It causes premature morbidity, mortality and is a substantial health burden on individuals, health systems and society.

“It can be more difficult to manage in older people because of other linked disorders or diseases and their treatments. Thus, it is not a trivial disease and poses many significant challenges to the delivery of effective and safe care.

“We were delighted with how successful the first training sessions have been and we have received excellent feedback from the participants.”

IDOP led the first-ever National Care Home Diabetes Audit in autumn 2012-13 in partnership with ABCD (Association of British Clinical Diabetologists). The research, which surveyed more than 2,000 English care homes, found shortfalls in screening for diabetes on admission to a care home, lack of a designated member of staff with responsibility for diabetes management and limited access to dedicated training and education for care home staff.

For more information on the training programme, contact Julian Backhouse by emailing julian.backhouse@beds.ac.uk or call 01582 743266.