Nottinghamshire healthcare diabetes team won innovation award at Celebrating DESMOND Awards

A Nottinghamshire healthcare team has won an award at the national celebrating DESMOND Awards.

The Diabetes Education and Self Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed (DESMOND) programme provides education and self-management skills for adults with Type 2 Diabetes across Nottinghamshire County.

The Nottinghamshire Healthcare diabetes team won the Innovation Award for their forward-thinking, flexible and patient-centred approach to making changes to the service.

The team aims to make positive changes to improve the service by improving the way in which DESMOND sessions are delivered to or accessed by participants, but also methods of improving educator experience and knowledge, meaning as a team they are always providing the highest standard of care.

DESMOND uses a variety of learning styles and visual aids, it provides consistent, evidence based messages to patients to help people self-manage their condition, therefore improving health outcomes such as appropriate levels of HbA1c — the average amount of glucose in your blood over two to three months— and weight reduction.

Amy Eagle, Care Group director at the Community Health Services, Nottinghamshire Healthcare said: “Congratulations to the team on this fantastic achievement.

“They work really hard to deliver excellent education, to ensure patients have the tools they need to manage their condition and minimise any risk of further health issues.

“This recognition is really well deserved.”

The team has also been working with other colleagues working with type 2 Diabetes, such as practice nurses and other health care professionals, encouraging them to observe the course so that they can be better informed when discussing with patients and help to provide consistent messages.

A future aim is to pilot a separate DESMOND group for the under 40s.

Rebecca Januszczyk, Community Diabetes dietitian said “As a team we are innovative, proactive, flexible and adaptable to change.

“During sessions, we are experienced in reading the energy of a group, and adapting where needed.

“Our mindset is to continually ensure patients have the best experience whilst on the course, but also be able to access the most appropriate care for them and make this care more accessible.

“We were really proud to win this award.”