Key takeaways from a landmark day at Parliament House, Canberra
On 31 March, I was delighted to attend the National Diabetes Summit and Exhibition at Parliament House in Canberra. Here is my summary of the day and my key takeaways.
Hosted by Diabetes Australia, the Summit brought together experts in diabetes from across Australia. This included lived experience advocates, politicians, health professionals, researchers, industry representatives, peak bodies and more.
The day started with a Welcome to Country by Ngunnawal elder, Aunty Violet Sheridan, who lives with diabetes. We also heard from Justine Cain (Group CEO of Diabetes Australia), and the Honourable Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health and Ageing.
The day was structured into five panel discussions. These focused on:
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- Australia’s diabetes landscape: context, challenges and momentum
- Closing the gap: First Nations Leadership in diabetes prevention and care
- Turning the tide: prevention as the cornerstone of a sustainable health system
- Are our policies and systems fit for pace? Translating diabetes innovation into equitable care
- Care that connects: integrating services around the person
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It was a valuable opportunity to step back and look at the bigger picture of diabetes in Australia. To hear directly from a range of people about what matters most. Program details are available here.
A few key themes stood out to me:
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- Lived experience matters. It was really pleasing to see that lived experience expertise was centred in every discussion; each panel included one or more people living with diabetes.
- The mental load of diabetes was spoken about by many people with lived experience of diabetes. This included decision-making, diabetes stigma, managing glucose levels, sleep impacts, and financial costs.
- The need to improve environments and systems, rather than placing blame on individuals. While this matters for everyone, different communities have different needs. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote communities, there are basic needs not being met. These are needs that many of us may take for granted, e.g. access to safe drinking water, safe walking tracks, and healthy food.
- The importance of human connection in diabetes care. Human connection means working with compassion and empathy. We heard stories of lived experience advocates being powerful role models.
- The need to involve people living with diabetes in every stage of research. To do research that matters, we need to partner with people with diabetes to co-create research questions that matter from the very outset.
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As someone living with diabetes, I’m grateful that many people are working towards a better future for Australians like me. And as a researcher, I’m left with a sense of responsibility to listen, be compassionate, and to work towards system-level change.
Looking ahead
There is much work to do. But conversations like this matter. They help bring together various perspectives, and they remind us why this work is so important. The challenge now is to turn what we heard into action, so that diabetes care, research, and policy better reflect the realities of people living with diabetes every day across Australia.