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Looking back at our 2024 Summit...

It's hard to believe it's 4 months on from our 2024 Diabetes Summit held at the beautiful Te Manukanuka o Hoturoa marae, Auckland Airport.   This is a reminder taster from the night presented by our own Fale Lesa.  For more detail, you can see the individual speakers as they present on the main topic of disparity on our YouTube channel here ...

Congratulations Tania on your Pacific Nutrition certificate!

Congratulations Tania for achieving the Certificate of Proficiency in Pacific Nutrition, with excellent marks we might add! As an organisation we've had team members undertake study in this course and it's antecedents since the very first programmes were trialed in the community back in the early 2000's. Tania, who works with the Gardens4Health team, was delighted to participate in what is always a very informative, and we have to say, enjoyable course to increase understanding of healthy nutrit...

Do you want to support our efforts to prevent diabetes and its complications?

Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa has been working in the community for nearly 30 years to reduce the incidence of diabetes, and diabetes complications.   We run a range of programmes, carry out research, design resources, and advocate for improvements.  There is more information on what we do on our website here.To do the work we do, requires ongoing support from our community.   Examples of this include people stepping up to be trained to deliver prevention activities thems...

Tis the time for scammers to be sneaky...

Technology comes along in leaps and bounds, and every time you turn around it seems there's something improved, new, new-ish, getting-there and almost-but-not-quite-magical that has the potential to make living with diabetes easier.   Unfortunately, it's become clear that there are some enterprising scammers out there who are producing and marketing products that sound just too good to be true, and at the moment they are.   Take the mass of special watches, bracelets, and oth...

Congratulations Helen Snell!

Dr Helen Snell has become Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit - awarded for services to nursing and diabetes care, full list of recipients here.    Helen has worked tirelessly to advance the interests of people with diabetes, and is an extraordinary leader in the nursing discipline.   We think that Helen is an excellent and very well deserved recipient of this honour.   More information in this article from Janine Rankin, Manuwatu Standard....

Congratulations Dr Malcolm Mulholland on your nomination for NZOTY!

Congratulations to Dr Malcolm Mulholland for his nomination for Kiwibank New Zealander of the year and reaching the semi-finals!  We have been privileged to support Malcolm's message for better access to lifesaving and life changing medication for all New Zealanders.   He has worked tirelessly with his My Life Matters campaign and Patient Voice Aotearoa organisation. We applaud his extraordinary commitment and mahi, and are in awe of what he has managed to achieve bringing patient...

2024 comes to a close

Final Board meeting for the year...check.   Final team meeting...check.   Team Christmas function...and check.   Now it's the last few days till we close the office (from Friday 20 December) after which we take two well earned weeks away from work, and re-open refreshed and energised on Monday 6 January 2025.Thanks to everyone out there we've come in contact with over the last year, it's been a busy time whether it's been through the amazing efforts of our Board of ...

Annual Activity Report for 2023-24 year

Click on the link below to download a PDF version of the latest Annual Activity Report for Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa.  April 2023 to March 2024 was another busy year in a challenging environment and the team as always did an amazing job. For the audited financials for the year period, please  look at the copy lodged with the Charities Commission on their website.  ...

Pacific Health wake-up call from the latest Health Survey

This RNZ article describes some statistics taken from the latest NZ Health survey (covering year July 2023-June 2024, involving 9719 adults/3062 children) showing the situation in relation to health is worse for Pasifika.    Actual survey results for more detailed analysis here.  This is sobering reading, and shows there is a very long way to go to get to the point where prevention of conditions such as diabetes becomes a feasible possibility and priority for some struggling famil...

Advocacy in action for Community Gardening

Ali, leader of Gardens4Health, was privileged to present evidence at the PC94 Wairaka Precinct Hearing at the Auckland Town Hall. The story as reported is that Sanctuary Community Organic Garden was protected during the original sale agreement between Unitec and the Crown. These protections ended up being ignored without explanation, and the precinct design came to include plans to build upon the māra (garden) land with no alternative space provided to integrate a community māra kai ...

SUMMIT 2024 - Shekhar Sehgal - Technology

Dr Shekhar Sehgal presented on CGM and other devices at the Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa Summit on 26 September 2024.   This very well received presentation was followed up by an appearance on the panel later in the session where he shared his own personal experiences.   Shekhar's session here https://youtu.be/tDi-aoS7Fq4...

SUMMIT 2024 - Panel with Type 1 technology users

A high point of our Summit at Te Manukanuka o Hoturoa Marae, was the panel with three amazing people with type 1 diabetes who generously shared their thoughts and experience on using technology.  CGM and pumps are a hot topic, how the devices affect real life people has been lost in the discussion and advocacy.   Thanks hugely to Ruby McGill, Lelea Fonua, and Shekhar Sehgal.   View here https://youtu.be/e27DYxS0WIQ ...

World Diabetes Day 2024 event in Sandringham

It was so nice to see the effort put into difference events, especially where there was collaboration between difference organisations and businesses. Here are some pics of our team from World Diabetes day.  Diana, Cassie and Marie collaborated with the Auckland Diabetes Centre at Greenlane Hospital at the event which took place at the Wesley community center market day in Sandringham.  The fat and sugar display, which is so 'old school' and we've been making for literally decades...

Publication - DCSS - Risk factors and life free of health issues

Another paper from the DCSS Audit.  This one published in BMC Medicine Yu et al. BMC Medicine (2024) 22:527, read latest version here https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03743-y  or download PDF below.  The full title is "Association between within-target risk factors and life expectancy free from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia in individuals with type 2 diabetes in New Zealand between 1994 and 2018: a multi-ethnic cohort study". Con...

SUMMIT 2024 - Kate Smallman on Youth Bariatric project

Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa Clinical Director, Nurse Practitioner Kate Smallman presented on the Youth Bariatric project (running since 2020, finish end 2025).   This presentation generated plenty of excellent discussion at the Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa Summit held on 26 September 2024 at Te Manukanuka o Hoturoa marae in Mangere.  Thank you to Kate and team for your advocacy on behalf of the extraordinary young people who have been involved in this project.   Se...

Summit 2024 - Kanchana Perera PhD

Video presentation prepared for the Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa Summit 2024 by PhD candidate Kanchana Perera.    This wasn't played at the summit itself however is for circulation to the audience....

Disparities and Inequities...risk of being widened

This article published by RNZ (originally in The Conversation) describes the situation around training issues for the newly funded technology.    Highlighted is the potential for inequities with rollout and training.  Authored by Lynne Chepulis, Hamish Crocket, Martin De Bock.  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/531030/glucose-monitors-for-diabetes-have-finally-been-funded-but-there-s-a-problem...

SUMMIT 2024 - Gerhard Sundborn - FIZZ

Another excellent speaker from the Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa Summit held on 26 September 2024 at Te Manukanuka o Hoturoa marae in Mangere.  Here we have Dr Gerhard Sundborn who is an epidemiologist, researcher, senior lecturer of Population and Pacific Health at University of Auckland and longstanding Board member for Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa.   Gerhard is talking about advocacy to do with FIZZ (Fighting Sugar In Soft Drinks).   See the video here or cli...

SUMMIT 2024 - Professor Simmons on Disparities

At the Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa Summit held on 26 September 2024 at Te Manukanuka o Hoturoa marae in Mangere, keynote speaker and Patron of Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa, Distinguished Professor David Simmons, gave an overview of disparities bringing together local and international data.    https://youtu.be/yLFR8CZbxeY...

Sugar, new report into Ireland's POSITIVE experience of introducing a tax

According to a report just released (September 2024) into Ireland was the 36th country to introduce a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks.  There are apparently 108 countries in total known to have introduced a tax of some similar sort on sugar-sweetened beverages, New Zealand isn't among them. The introduction of the tax in Ireland in 2018 was before the World Health Organisation (WHO) European Regional Obesity Report (June 2022) which recommended a range of policy options for obesity action, in...

MHT Diabetes Trust get behind Diabetes Awareness November 2024

This is from our friends at MHT Diabetes Trust (Manawatu, Horowhenua and Tararua Diabetes Trust) https://www.diabetestrust.org.nz/ They've got an open day on the 14th if you're in the area and a competition asking for photos of the whanau dressed in blue (see their FB page for T&Cs)...

Diabetes Awareness 2024

International Diabetes Federation (IDF) have announced the theme of 'wellbeing' for World Diabetes Day which is only two weeks away on 14 November.    The blurb from the World Diabetes Day (WDD) website reads "Millions of people with diabetes face daily challenges managing their condition at home, work, and school. They must be resilient, organised, and responsible, impacting both their physical and mental well-being. Diabetes care often focuses only on blood sugar, leaving many overwh...

Publication - Diabetes treatment satisfaction among a multi-ethnic Aotearoa New Zealand population

This publication follows up a multi-centre trial conducted in general practices and diabetes clinic sites across Aotearoa New Zealand, of which Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa was one (researchers on-site Kate Smallman and Patricia Harry).   The study was led by Rinki Murphy, our Clinical Director at the time, and included both urban and rural regions.   The aim for this part of the study was to "assess whether diabetes treatment satisfaction differs by ethnicity ...

Summit 2024 is done - thanks to everyone involved!

What a special event our fourth summit focusing on 'disparities' turned out to be on the 26th of September. We've been left with so much to reflect on after the experience.  There will be more information to follow but in the meantime we wanted to say thanks so much to everyone who attended, presented or spoke, funded, provided service for, or sent best wishes.   Special appreciation to Te Manukanuka O Hoturoa Marae for their hospitality and sharing their beautiful space. Tha...

Summit 2024 is nearly here!

We are nearly ready to open registrations for our 2024 Diabetes Summit.  We are thrilled that we are going to be welcomed onto Te Manukanuka o Hoturoa Marae at Auckland Airport on the evening of 26 September.   This is the 4th Summit we have run, each of which has had a different theme.  This time the theme running through the presentations from the excellent lineup of speakers is about disparity, something that in health has the potential to affect every aspect of diagnosis,...