We’re taking a bit of a detour this week in our “Diabetes Technology and Solution-Focused Practice” series to focus on a special event – a Facebook Livestream Language Matters Global Summit.
We @AFreshPOVForYou have been supporters of the #LanguageMatters movement in diabetes care and education since early on. You can read previous blog posts here and here.
Initially, when the Diabetes Australia Language Guidance Paper was published here, we were off and running, trying to incorporate strength-based, person-first language into all that we did. Deb was working at Sutter Health at the time and started a National Diabetes Month/World Diabetes Day campaign to educate healthcare professionals within the system about the rationale behind the movement and the meaning behind the words.
Soon after the United States guidelines were published jointly by both the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (ADCES- formerly AADE) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) the Use of Language in Diabetes Care and Education (Dickinson, JK, 2017) here. We were then even more inspired.
As we’ve written about before, we were involved in the script development and production of the Telly Award winning video “Changing the Conversation,” with a purpose to raise awareness of the power of language and the impact language can have on a person’s well-being, quality of life and overall sense of self while living with diabetes. We’re so proud that this video has been shown around the world!
And the use of language is the foundation of this solution-focused blog. We believe and live these principles every day and work to help others embrace the important messages and translate them into their relationships with their clients and co-workers.
Yesterday, October 19, 2021 Diabetes Australia celebrated 10 years of moving the needle forward in the #LanguageMatters movement by hosting a Facebook Livestream Language Matters Global Summit. We were thrilled that this event included a showing of the Changing the Conversation video and Deb was so humbled to introduce the video once again to new audiences.
As October turns to November and Diabetes Month activities, please consider sharing the YouTube link to this event and continue to raise awareness about the importance of and need to change the way we talk about diabetes to help stop the stigma, shame and blame often associated with a lack of knowledge combined with media hype around diabetes.
We can all make a difference when we believe that #LanguageMatters!
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Deb is employed by Dexcom, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.
Tami is employed by the University of Kentucky HealthCare Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center, but her words and opinions in this blog are her own.
