DPC highlights global effort to reduce suicide in people with diabetes – The Diabetes Times

International efforts to tackle rates of suicide and self-harm in people with diabetes will be the focus of a compelling workshop at this year’s Diabetes Professional Care conference.

Suicide is approximately twice as prevalent among people with diabetes – however, this figure is believed to be much higher due to challenges around identification and recording of events. One study found that adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes have 61 per cent higher odds of reporting suicidal thoughts than those without diabetes. While adolescence is a considerable risk factor for suicide, it affects people across all ages and gender.

One of the workshops at this year’s DPC, which takes place at Olympia London on 10 and 11 November, will address this important but poorly understood subject, highlighting the key issues and the different ways they are being tackled.

Delegates will hear about work by the FDA RESCUE Collaborative Community (REducing SuiCide rates amongst individUals with diabEtes), an international community of key stakeholders and experts set up to focus on this issue.

In addition, the results of a survey of healthcare professional (HCP) perspectives on depression and suicide amongst people with diabetes will be presented as part of the discussion.

The highlights of the findings include:

• The vast majority of HCPs believed that routine diabetes visits are an appropriate place for discussions about depression and suicidal ideation;
• Most HCPs are at least moderately comfortable asking patients about self-harm or suicidal ideation, though some were uncomfortable and expressed concerns about lacking the knowledge or resources to provide support;
• Less than a quarter of HCPs had specific postgraduate training regarding self-injury and suicide;
• Most HCPs had access to social workers and/or psychologists who could address patients’ psychosocial concerns.

Among the speakers will be Professor Katharine Barnard-Kelly, a Professor of Health Psychology, who set up

Professor Katharine Barnard-Kelly will be speaking at DPC2021

the FDA RESCUE Collaborative Community after being approached by the United States’ Food and Drug Administration.

Professor Barnard-Kelly said: “The goal of the FDA RESCUE Collaborative Community is to reduce rates of intended self-injury and suicidal acts by people with diabetes through improved understanding of risk factors and the implementation of strategies to address them.

“We have a multi-faceted approach including, but not limited to, research, education, messaging and improving identification/coding. To this end, we will be reporting data from our initial research and providing insights into the enormity of the challenge and what we are doing to address it.”

The theme of DPC2021 is ‘rebooting diabetes care’ with key issues including the impact of COVID-19 on diabetes-related conditions being explored during the free to attend event. …….

Source: https://diabetestimes.co.uk/dpc-highlights-global-effort-to-reduce-suicide-in-people-with-diabetes/