Diabetes & Intellectual Disability (ID)

Adults with intellectual disabilities are two to three times more likely to develop diabetes ¹. However, there are limited diabetes-specific resources for this population.

Due to the complexities of managing diabetes and a disability, it is important that health professionals and carers have the most relevant, up-to-date information to assist them in supporting a person with diabetes and a disability.

The Diabetes & Intellectual Disability (ID) project developed a range of resources to fill a gap in diabetes education for people with an ID and their support network including health professionals, carers, and support people.

Project Update: July 2021

This project is now complete. All the resources are available at ndss.com.au.

Resources for health professionals:

1. The guide for health professionals titled ‘Effective communication with people who have an intellectual disability about their diabetes’ is available on the NDSS website ndss.com.au under the ‘resources for health professionals’ tab.
2. The online learning module ‘Tailor your communication skills: A training module for health professionals caring for adults with diabetes and an intellectual disability’.  Visit healthprofessionals.learnupon.com to sign up and access this course. This module is endorsed by ADEA for 4 CPD points.

Resources for people living with diabetes and an intellectual disability

The following resources are now available for people living with diabetes and an intellectual disability (and their carers):

1. A series of low-literacy videos covering:

• • What is diabetes
  • My diabetes team
  • Caring for my body
  • Preventing other health problems
  • Medications to help my diabetes.

3. Choosing healthy foods information sheet
4. Diabetes visit cards to help make visiting a health professional easier.

You can keep up to date with progress on NDSS funded projects, through the fortnightly member e-newsletter or get in touch with the project team via ndss@adea.com.

1 Brown, M., Taggart, L., Karatzias, T., Truesdale, M., Walley, R., Northway, R., Macrae, S., Carey, M., & Davies, M. (2017). Improving diabetes care for people with intellectual disabilities: a qualitative study exploring the perceptions and experiences of professionals in diabetes and intellectual disability services. Journal of intellectual disability research: JIDR, 61(5), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12369