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Preventing Diabetes
Let's Prevent Diabetes
The Let’s Prevent Diabetes campaign is a call to action. It’s about calling on Federal and State governments to fund a national type 2 diabetes prevention program for Australians at high risk.
It is also a grassroots campaign encouraging all Australians to support us in our call to government. For decades governments have prevented road accidents through the requirement of seat belts,
prevented head injuries thorough the requirement of helmets and prevented drownings through
the requirement of life jackets. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on these prevention programs.
But when it comes to type 2 diabetes, where we know we can prevent this serious condition for those at high risk, we have no national approach.
We want all Australians to back our calls. We want people with diabetes, their families, friends and work colleagues, as well as MPs, councils and others to add their voice to our campaign by visiting www.letspreventdiabetes.org.au from Sunday 8 July 2012.
In Australia alone 275 people develop diabetes every day. It is the epidemic of the 21st century. There are an estimated 2 million Australian adults who have pre-diabetes and are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes can be prevented in this high-risk group. Research shows that most people do not think diabetes is a serious illness and underestimate their personal risk.
Currently, the type 2 prevention programs available in Australia are very limited. Victoria is the only state with a program (which is funded by the state government) for people aged over 50 (state government) program for people aged over 50. That is far from enough.
We want type 2 diabetes prevention programs to be available in every state for the 2 million
Australians at high risk. We also want systematic risk assessments for people over 40.
Visit www.letspreventdiabetes.org.au and add your voice to our campaign. On this website you are asked to back our calls by answering yes to a simple question and writing to your local MPs. Don’t forget to send the link to your friends, families, workmates, schools, councils and everyone in between – the more people who visit our website the stronger our chance of getting governments to take action.
We need people with type 2 diabetes to be our biggest voice. You have been diagnosed with diabetes so you know how it affects your life. But if you were given the chance to prevent it we know you would jump at it. If you had been shown the impact that diabetes would have on your life before you were diagnosed, we know it would have helped motivate you to do something to reduce your chances of developing it. That’s what we want governments to do – get serious about the most serious threat to Australians’ health and productivity and fund a national diabetes prevention program for those at high risk.
We all know that there are differences and links between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. However, the impact of the condition on individuals and our community does not differentiate and there is an overall need for a national type 2 diabetes prevention program funded and supported by all governments.
While type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented, an estimated 60 per cent of type 2 diabetes cases can be prevented. We need people with type 1 diabetes to support the campaign by jumping online
and voting for governments to take action and fund a national type 2 diabetes prevention program. We need them to keep up the conversation on Facebook and Twitter and support all people with diabetes.
Remember that National Diabetes Week is about raising awareness of diabetes. This year’s message is about the prevention of type 2 diabetes, while in November, World Diabetes Day focuses on supporting all people with diabetes.
This campaign is funded by Diabetes Australia’s member organisations and Novo Nordisk.
Diabetes Australia is the peak body for diabetes in Australia. It is our responsibility to champion the needs of all individuals living with diabetes and all those at risk of developing diabetes.