Monday 23 September 2013

Support For The Support Team.

It's no secret that there's a whole host of support available to people with diabetes. Forums, blogs, support groups, Facebook groups, the #doc hashtag on Twitter. But what about for those that support the people with diabetes? Well, turns out there's some support for them too!

At the DUK Big Event, during the "Emotional Issues: Coping with type one diabetes" talk, the concept of "support for the support team" came up, and in response to this a couple of Facebook groups were mentioned.

First, there's Diabetes Family, a group set up for the "5ps" of diabetes: people with diabetes, parents, partners, pals (siblings, friends, housemates etc) and professionals. Brilliant idea! I'm very aware of the fact that I have a huge amount of support, but it's so nice to know that for my family and friends, particularly my housemates, that there's also support for them, if they want it.

Image taken from Google Images.
The second is Life With A Diabetic, more aimed at partners/those people that are living with someone with diabetes. Again, genius idea! It's not a group I'm a part of as the person with diabetes, but I think it's so great that it's there. I also quite like that it's only aimed at the "significant others" that don't have diabetes; in the same way that I sometimes feel the need to go and vent somewhere that's "private", I'm sure they feel the same. It's a good idea to group together, don't get me wrong, but we also need our own little place in the DOC bubble to let rip.

So it's there, support for the support team, and I'm so glad it is! They "cheer" us on, keep us motivated, deal with the hypos and the hypers. It must be just as draining for them as it is for us. It's only right they have their own source of support too! 

Both of the Facebook groups mentioned in this post are "closed groups". Search for them on Facebook and send a request to join the group. Then, once the request has been accepted, you will be able to see all content within the group. Please adhere to any rules in place within the group(s) and chat away :-)   

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