My Diabetes My Way: February 2020 Update
Welcome to the My Diabetes My Way Newsletter for February 2020.
Planning for 2020
Now is an ideal time to consider personal goals to improve your life for the future. You may wish to improve your diabetes management or maintain good control. My Diabetes My Way can help you achieve these goals. Studies have shown if individuals with diabetes maintain their blood glucose levels to target, the risk of diabetes complications is reduced.
1. Monitor blood glucose levels (if you have been asked to by your diabetes team)
2. Take your prescribed medication regularly
3. Regularly check your feet and choose suitable footwear
4. Attend your diabetes review appointments and screening tests. These visits monitor your eyes, feet, HbA1c (overall diabetes control), kidney function, cholesterol, blood pressure and body mass index.
All of these results can be accessed on My Diabetes My Way if you have registered to access your records.
New "Year of Care" Report
This month we launched a new data entry form and report generator that allows you to more effectively plan for your diabetes appointments. Using the “Year of Care” model (https://www.diabetes.org.uk/professionals/position-statements-reports/nhs-diabetes-commissioning-documents-guidance/year-of-care), My Diabetes My Way can help you transform your diabetes review into a constructive and meaningful conversation with your healthcare team.
You will be asked a short series of questions to help identify what is important to you, and once submitted a report will generated for you to print, or take along to your appointment electronically on your smartphone or tablet. Please let us know if you have any feedback on this new feature.
Wellbeing and Mental Health Questionnaires
During 2019, we added some new questionnaires that allow you to assess your mental health and general wellbeing. The aim of these questionnaires are to allow you to self-assess areas where you may benefit from talking to your healthcare team. When you complete these assessments, we will provide you with a summary that explains your result, further guidance on what you can do next, and links to information that may help you.
When you log in to My Diabetes My Way and select "My Home Data", you will see two new assessments:
1. Mental Health Test: Indicates if you are suffering from, or are at risk of depression
2. Wellbeing Test: Assesses your general wellbeing and how you are feeling
Both of these questionnaires have recently been recommended internationally as the standard methods of assessment for wellbeing and mental health (https://www.ichom.org/portfolio/diabetes/).
Login Issues Affecting New and Existing Users
We are aware of a problem that is temporarily preventing some users from successfully logging in to My Diabetes My Way, or in some cases preventing us from setting up new accounts. We are working with the myaccount team to fix this, but in the meantime we are contacting everyone who has been affected when the issue is resolved. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience that this causes. If you require further information, please contact our support team at mydiabetesmyway@nhs.net
Help and Support
If you have not yet managed to gain access to your diabetes records on My Diabetes My Way, or would like an update on the status of your registration, please let us know. You can contact us regarding any problems or request further help and support by emailing: mydiabetesmyway@nhs.net
Thank you for your continued support.
The mydiabetes*myway team