A collaborative project between ELFT and Barts Health NHS Trust triumphed in the ‘Wellbeing’ category at the 2022 Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes Awards that were held live on Thursday 13 October.
This award recognises initiatives that deliver emotional wellbeing support for children, young people, emerging adults and adults, with diabetes of all ages and/or their families and carers.
There is an established link between mental health (MH) struggles and recurrent diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in people with T1D. In addition, this group is more likely to have further DKA episodes, struggle long-term with diabetes self-management and those with 4+ DKA are more likely to have died by five-year follow-up. Since April 2019 Bart's Health and East London Foundation Trust have run a MH treatment pathway for recurrent DKA. There is weekly screening for new admissions and those with 4+ are offered MH case management. Since launch, there has been a 20% fall in admissions from people with 4+ DKA and a 50% reduction in bed days.
The judges said that: "The Bart’s Health & East London Foundation Trust adjusted well to virtual consultation during the pandemic. They identified prior mental health issues and put together a strong proposal for psychological intervention for those with DKAs. It had strong feedback and is clearly a very valuable project."
Debbie Woods, Head of Medical General Medicines Sanofi UK & Ireland said:
“Sanofi remains committed to the care of people with diabetes and we are proud to support Quality in Care Diabetes again in 2022. These awards provide a great opportunity for the inspirational work done across the country, often unrecognised on a regional or national level, to be shared and for us to show how much we value those individuals, teams, Trusts and partnerships who strive to improve the quality of care and support provided to their patients with diabetes.
"These awards are an important stage for great practice to be disseminated to a wider audience and act as a trigger for service improvement or an inspiration for new projects which lead to innovative improvement in outcome, safety or experience for all patients with diabetes.
"We look forward to seeing the winning projects and helping to disseminate them more widely for the ultimate benefit of people with diabetes and their families/carers.”
See more about the QiC Diabetes Awards here.