Introduction
Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. According to research, 90% of people around the world have diabetes. In 2012, diabetes caused over 1million deaths, with 80% of the deaths in low Middle Eastern countries. The rise in diabetes cases results from unhealthy lifestyles, socioeconomic status, lack of knowledge about the disease, and urbanization. This has become a significant health problem globally as it requires one to depend on medicine for the rest of their life and requires lifestyle adjustment. This has created a need for diabetes awareness and self-management. Statistics carried out in Australia shows Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people are at high risk of getting diabetes mellitus than the non-indigenous group. It a common condition for adults although recently it has spread among children, mostly teenagers. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Island children are ten times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes mellitus than those of non-indigenous. Research with high weight or obesity is most likely to contract type 2 diabetes. This shows there is a need for these groups to adjust their lifestyle and adopt a better approach to manage the condition.
The most common treatment for persons with diabetes focuses on biomedical. This approach is disease-centered, aiming to treat the disease and live the person to cope with diabetes. It does not incorporate all resources and strengths of the person to achieve better because it relies only on biomedical aspects. Thus, limiting the person with diabetes while flouring treatment approach, which is a model of strength-based approach that integrant all elements for the person with diabetes, not only biomedical condition. It focuses on the success of the individual with diabetes by evaluating the individual’s life and help them choose what is required in them to attain health wellness rather than just avoiding complications. This approach allows medics to expand their responsibility beyond the medical profession and collaborate with the community towards the achievement of quality health.in this health practitioner should have a character of listening, empathetic, and willing to be part of the patient’s treatment journey. This helps the patient to develop a positive attitude for health. However, the success of a strength-based approach is not defined by the elimination of diabetes complications but by the extent to which patients sustain self-care and quality life. It is believed that the patient is responsible for his or her change.
According to research done in Australia, the majority of people with type 2 diabetes were willing to have their hemoglobin A1C goal achieved and attending the regular clinic, but according to health practitioners, on a small percentage, turn up for review. After the research was conducted, the result was the patient’s low turn out was influenced by the poor relationship between the health practitioners and the patients. In 2011-2013, a study was conducted to expose the unmet needs of diabetes patients and to facilitate partnership among family members and the health practitioners. It was noted that there was no proper communication and support plan between the medics and the patients, thus, leading to patient unsatisfactory. The medics information contracted that of the patient. The majority of the doctors reported that they always seek to know from their paints how diabetes affects their lives. Still, less than 25 % of the patient-reported have been asked questions about the effects of the condition. Over 80% of the patients reported getting required support from health care teams despite the gap between them and health care providers.
Recently diabetes management has shifted from health care providers to self-management. It based on evidence through a comparison of the coping approach (CTA) and a flourishing treatment approach (FTA). According to the coping approach, diabetes is seen as a condition that compromises the life of a patient and a burden for them. In contrast, a flourishing approach knows the condition as the ability to better resilience on improved health with time. While coping focuses on the negative aspects of the situation, FTA focuses on positive aspects and seeks to incorporate them to improve the life of a patient. The coping approach advises patients on how to control blood glucose in the body to avoid complications. While FTA suggests putting more effort into self-care to overcome body changes, it believes that a patient can live a quality life even with the disease by concentrating on the patient’s strengths. At the same time, CTA thinks the only thing the patient can do is learn to live with the disease. And finally, CTA requires the patient to follow instructions from the medics while FTA focuses on sharing information and collaborating with the physicians during treatment. However, the two approaches are significant to the patient. For example, the aboriginals’ people are supposed to engage more in physical activity and go back to their traditional lifestyle, such as eating natural foods that will help these individuals with type 2 diabetes live a more quality life because treatment for this condition involves the adjustment of lifestyle.
Health care providers play a role in community-based programs by encouraging health behaviors such as a healthy diet and regular physical activities among the indigenous groups. This has significantly contributed to the prevention and management of diabetes mellitus. Most countries have developed suitable community-based programs that help in the control of the condition. This involves education programs that focus on different aspects of health and illustrating the advantages of proper management of chronic diseases. This program mostly targets Aboriginals and Torres Strait Island people in remote areas that rarely access health services information and other resources. According to research, there has been a significant reduction of risky health behaviors among the Aboriginals people. Therefore, it is recommended states support this program because the healthcare system does not have adequate capacity to reach a large population to impact more change. One way in which they can support this program is by bringing together the health system and other sectors to collaborate with the community to incorporate all components of community-based programs that are effective in facilitating patient-centered outcomes. This will help to focus on enabling the patient to accept his or her condition and help them identify their strengths, which can lead to improved quality of life. Patients should be educated on how to respond to different levels of blood glucose in their bodies.
Family members and society are also educated on how to live with diabetic people. For example, one should engage them in positive conversations that are motivating and avoid telling stories of people who died out diabetes on any negative information regarding the condition. Secondly, if a family member or friend is diagnosed with diabetes, one should not show them, they are emotional or hopeless about the situation but use the strength and resources available to support the patient and help them remain positive about life. Since sticking to routine exercise is challenging, you should choose an activity that you two like to be part of the event. It may be a walk, aerobics, dancing, or biking. This will help reduce the risk associated with type 2 diabetes. One should be keen to observe the change of behavior and symptoms of the diseases that take action based on the knowledge they got from community-based programs. Any support that a person is willing to offer should be specific. And when dealing with a diabetic person, you should avoid nagging because it triggers the complications associated with the disease and finally ensures the patient takes the right diet.
The rate at which diabetes case are increasing with within aboriginals and Torres Strait Island it indicates the need for a change of how health care providers deal with diabetes patients. The health care providers should develop ways to identify the patient’s strengths and resources in these communities and encourage them to utilize the opportunity. This motivates them to do better. Tools that can be used to assist health workers in adopting a flourishing treatment approach include a logbook. Health practitioners are advised that when scanning the patient’s logbook, they should focus on scanning the numbers that are in range and acknowledge the patient’s effort rather than scanning the numbers that are out of range. This makes the patient feel hopeful and try to do better. Another one is a flourishing conversation. According to Greenberg, the practitioner should avoid asking a question based on negative but rather frame it positively. For instance, one can ask, ”What advantages have you enjoyed from engaging in regular physical activities?’ this is better than asking the challenges he or she goes through while engaging in regular physical activities.
Many challenges are encountered in the process of initiating change for the attainment of improved healthcare. One of the most common challenges is convincing non-indigenous health care providers that there is a gap that needs to be filled in the sector. They may argue that the problem pointed out is not genuine or a priority. They may require evidence of the problem; therefore, the planning team must develop strategies to demonstrate the issue, for example, including a patient and medic in a conversation that will trigger emotions and prove the need for intervention. Even after people agree, there is a problem that needs to be solved, and different opinions on how things should be done arise. Scientific evidence must support the intervention. Everything must be well clarified to convince the practitioners that the solution chosen is the most appropriate. Culture is another challenging factor where various beliefs and morale of the management team from multiple communities can result in different outcomes. The Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander culture, organizational culture, and professional values of non-indigenous health workers may interfere with the improvement goal. The clinician may fail to have an interest or decided to focus on other issues that they believe are more important. Lack of adequate resources such as finance, proper management skills, infrastructure, and time required may frustrate the improvement plan. Improvement requires many skills that may be unavailable within the community due to the high rate of illiteracy. When there is over-reliance on specific people, sustainability is threatened, so it must spread attention to prove effectiveness, efficiency, and relevance. However, the improvement program is evaluated, sometimes an issue of unwanted consequence arises, affecting the targeted group that was supposed to benefit from the program.
Conclusion
Diabetes mellitus has been a prevalent epidemic in Australia. Most of the people affected are from indigenous communities indicating the effect of colonization in the social, economic, and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. They ended up adopting the westernization lifestyle. Indigenous children also at a high rate of contracting the disease more than non-indigenous children. This calls for support of community-based programs to create awareness about the disease and educate them on prevention measures and self-management for the adults who have diabetes. The parents or family members whose children have diabetes get training on how to help them manage the condition. The majority of health providers need more practice to improve their skills in being a co-partner in the treatment process of the patient. It allows the clinician to build a therapeutic relationship with the diabetes patient that can help them in self-management and attain an improved quality of life. This will assist in bridging the gap between them and the patients. Discrimination of ethnic groups is a challenging and frustrating change in the health and well-being of disadvantaged communities. Therefore, this shows a need for the health system to adopt a flourishing treatment approach that incorporates aspects that benefit the patient.
Rariden, C. (2019). Diabetes Distress: Assessment and Management of the Emotional Aspect of Diabetes Mellitus. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 15(9), 653-656.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2019.06.020
Rahman, F., McEvoy, J. W., Ohkuma, T., Marre, M., Hamet, P., Harrap, S., … & Muntner, P. (2019). Effects of blood pressure lowering on clinical outcomes according to baseline blood pressure and cardiovascular risk in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: the ADVANCE trial. Hypertension, 73(6), 1291-1299.
https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.118.12414
Eh, K., McGill, M., Wong, J., & Krass, I. (2016). Cultural issues and other factors that affect self-management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) by Chinese immigrants in Australia. Diabetes research and clinical practice, 119, 97-105.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2016.07.006
Carpenter, R., DiChiacchio, T., & Barker, K. (2019). Interventions for self-management of type 2 diabetes: An integrative review. International journal of nursing sciences, 6(1), 70-91.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2018.12.002