Policy Implementation on Diabetes

This document discusses the need for a policy to address the diabetes epidemic in the nation. It highlights the impact of diabetes on healthcare resources and the economy, as well as the complications associated with the disease. The document also outlines action plans and strategies for prevention and management of diabetes, and provides a procedure for policy implementation.

Running head: POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
Introduction:
Diabetes has become one of the biggest health concerns in the nation because of the
economical impact it is having on healthcare resources and the economy of the nation. It had
affected the quality of life of the affected people making them suffer from huge number of health
conditions. It has been found that everyday about 275 people in the nation are found to be
affected by this disorder that shows the extent of the disorder in the every community in the
nation (Ackerman et al., 2015). Statistical analysis had also shown that about 85% of the people
in the nation had already been affected by the disorders for which it had taken the shape of an
epidemic and is considered a huge health burden on the economic stability of the nation. Hence,
it is important to develop a policy which would shed more light on the different aspects of the
diabetes epidemic in the nation. This policy would be also comprising of strategies and actions
plans by which people of the nation can be educated to manage and prevent the disorder from
occurring to them and thereby lead a happy and successful life.
Policy name:
The picture of Diabetes: Development of action plans
Policy purpose:
Diabetes is one of the chronic health conditions where the blood glucose level in the
affected individual becomes high. The hormone called insulin is released from the beta cells
from the islets of Langerhans from the pancreas. This hormone helps the cells of the body to
accept glucose from the blood in order to take part in respiration and production of energy for
working of the different organs. In case of diabetes, the body cells either become non-responsive
to the insulin (type 2 diabetes) or cannot take glucose from the blood because of the absence of

2
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
insulin (type 1 diabetes). In such situations, the body cells fail to utilize glucose from the blood
and cannot produce energy for the organs for which the organs cannot function properly and
results in failure. The glucose level increases in the blood resulting in the development of
diabetes in the patients (Alva et al., 2015). The National Health Survey had conducted an
extensive research which has showed that diabetes had gradually turned to be one the greatest
health burden in the nation. About 1.2 million people in the nation accounting for about 6% of
the Australian adults aged 18 years and over are found to be suffering from diabetes as the data
provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The prevalence of the diabetes had been found to
have tripled between 1989 to 1990 and 2014-2015 with the proportion of diabetes increasing
from 1.5% to that of 4.7% in the nation. It has been found that about 275 to 280 Australians
develop diabetes everyday which shows about one person every five minutes. About 1.7 million
people is seen to have diabetes which is seen to include diagnosed diabetes accounting for about
1.2 million people and undiagnosed silent diabetes which included about an estimated number
of 500000 people. In the past year only, about 10000 people have been seen to be affected from
diabetes in the last year. It had been also found that for every person diagnosed with diabetes,
they usually have a family member or a caregiver who are seen to “live with diabetes” everyday
in the support role. This means that an estimated 2.4 million people are seen to be affected by
diabetes (Foley et al., 2019). It has also been found that the total annual cost for the diabetes in
the nation is around $14.6 billion that actually results in huge stress on the economic condition of
the nation. Hence, in order to make the nation free from such health burden and also to help more
people become aware of the disorder, a prevention policy needs to be developed which would
help in reducing the prevalence of the disorder in the nation.

3
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
Complications of diabetes and how each complication impacts the healthcare resources:
 Heart disorders: people who are living with diabetes are found to be two to that of four
times more likely in developing cardiovascular disorders contributing to about two-third
of all the deaths of the people suffering from diabetes. It has been also found that about 1
to 3 per cent of the people with type-2 diabetes are experiencing acute myocardial
infarction every year and this contributes to a number of 11000 and 33000 people being
affected who suffer from diabetes related acute myocardial infarction. About two-third of
the people suffering from diabetes is also seen to suffer from any form of cardiovascular
disorders (Frielitz et al., 2019). Data also shows that people who are affected with
diabetes have the vulnerability of developing cardiovascular disorders about 10 to 15
years earlier than people who do not have diabetes.
 Amputation: one of the most severe complication of diabetes is foot ulcers which when
not taken care of successfully, might lead to severe infections, sepsis and even
gangrenous condition. It had been found that about 4400 amputations had taken place in
the nation because of diabetes which had affected the patient mentally, emotionally as
well as physically. Every year in the nation, there are about 10000 hospital admissions
that are related to diabetes foot ulcers which had either the part of the limb amputated in
the person or whole limb amputation. Moreover, data had also shown that in the year
2005, more than 1000 people had faced death because of foot ulcers and lower limb
wounds accounting for about 85 of all the deaths in the nation (Herlitz et al., 2016).
Experts had estimated that this complication had resulted in the expenditure of about
$875 million every single year because of the treatment of the diabetic foot disease costs.
Even research had shown that Australians when treated properly with diabetes and

4
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
diabetic foot ulcers can save around % 2.7 billion over the period of five years. This is
found to be around $9000 per person who are aged under 75 and $ 12000 per person who
are aged over 75 years over a period for five years.
 Eye-disorders: Another important complication of diabetes is eye disorder. Diabetes is
one of the leading causes of preventable blindness the nation where between 25% and
35% people in the nation had already reported some form of diabetic retinopathy. Studies
have shown that diabetic macula edema is seen to occur in over 15% of the people living
with diabetes (Hsu et al., 2016). If the total indirect cost of vision loss that remains
associated with macular edema is the nation is estimated to be around $2.07 billion per
annum which in turn shows that about $28,000 per person is spent when they are
suffering from diabetic macular edema.
Action plans and strategies for overcoming the disorder of diabetes:
 One of the most important aspects of this policy is enabling the people to develop proper
lifestyle choices and healthy behaviors that would prevent them from gaining weight and
obesity. It has become important for the healthcare professionals to educate about the
risks factors and the complications that arise from diabetes and how controlling them,
might help them in preventing the occurrence of diabetes. Therefore, health education
session would be developed and planned by the healthcare professionals and would be
implemented in the community halls, as well as in schools, colleges offices, universities
and similar other areas where people could be educated (Munro et al., 2019). Along with
that, professionals would also prepare pamphlets and brochures and distribute them in the
health education sessions to make sure that the people can follow them when they get
back home and use the resources for modifying their lifestyle.

5
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
 Another important action that needs to be taken is the inter-sectoral collaboration among
different governmental and non-governmental organizations where each would try their
best to modify the obesogenic environment and make it more suitable for living healthy
and fit life. It has been found that marketing and advertising of fatty foods like chips,
burgers and sweetened beverages result people to feel more attracted towards buying
them which results in calorie gain. Moreover, fast foods and takeaway foods are found to
be high on calories but are quite cheap that make people but these unhealthy foods
(Sanderson et al., 2019). Hence, the government should be working with healthcare
professionals and the law enforcement bodies to bring out strict regulations on the
advertisement and marketing of such foods and such advertisements should be banned
from broadcasted on the television, social media and radio. Moreover, the government
should be also seen to be working with the tax departments of the nation and levy taxes
on fast foods and takeaway foods and reduce the price of the organic nutritious foods.
Moreover the local community should be focusing on developing fields and green parks
in the communities where people can go for physical activities. In this way, obesogenic
environment would be developed.
 Another important strategy action that needs to be taken is the screening sessions. Studies
have found that there are many people who are often now aware that they have high
glucose level which are above normal. They only come to know about them when
complications start taking place. Therefore, the healthcare professionals should be
working with the community leaders and develop screening sessions in the communities,
schools, offices, universities, primary healthcare centers. The screening sessions would
help early identification of the vulnerable individuals before they get affected so that

6
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
early treatment can be initiated before they are already affected with increases rate of
complications. This is one of the preventive approach to identify the people having
situations of pre-diabetes so that earlier interventions can help in preventing the situation
from becoming worse and resulting in economic impact on the individual as well as on
the healthcare resources (Sheikh et al., 2017)
 Another important action plan is to develop a practical based sessions of the use of
glucometer by the already affected individuals. It has been seen that the use of the
glucometer can help the affected individuals to identity their glucose level and to find out
whether they are under control or in the danger zone. Every affected patient needs to
handle this equipment properly to take the correct glucose level measurement but many
people fail to do so because of their inability in using this equipment and even many does
not know the importance of this equipment. Hence, it becomes important for healthcare
professionals to arrange for practical sessions where they would teach the people in using
this equipment first by documentaries and video representation and then practically in a
teach-back methods. Teach-back methods require the professionals to ask the patients to
summarize what is being taught allowing them to demonstrate the practical sessions by
themselves, this helps the professionals in understanding the gap presented by the
patients in their understanding and accordingly they fill them up (Vashisht et al., 2019).
 Another important action strategy that also needs to be implemented is the effective
screening session, education session and treatment sessions in the community that would
be particularly attended only for the foot ulcers. Often people with diabetes are seen to
neglect their foot wounds and ultimately situations get adverse when wounds become
infected and septic. Hence, healthcare professionals should arrange for screening sessions

7
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
for foot ulcers to identify vulnerable individuals. They should then arrange sessions for
health education, screening and practical sessions where individuals would be taught of
the ways by which they can take care of their wounds, manage them properly with the
help of correct evidence based interventions. This would reduce the health expenditure
associated with foot related complications in diabetes patients and prevent any situations
like amputations that have emotional and mental impacts on patients beside effecting
their physical health
The procedure by which policy should be implemented:
The governmental and non-governmental organizations should be working in an inter-
sectoral approach where members from all the organizations need to work collaboratively to
achieve the main aim of the policy. At first, the healthcare professionals would be working with
healthcare researchers and the Department of Health for undertaking a social analysis if the
incidence and prevalence of diabetes in the different communities and also try to identify the
contributing factors. Following this, the policy makers would be working with the healthcare
professionals as well as the healthcare researchers in order to plan the important action strategies
that need to be included in the policy development process (Wang et al., 2016). Following this,
the healthcare professionals would be advocating about the data collected in the research and
represents it to the funding agencies of the nation to acquire funds required for publishing of the
policy. Once the policy is funded, it should be published and it should be circulated among the
people of the nation and different organizations that would need to follow the policy for
developing a better nation. The healthcare professionals should then be arranging for health
education sessions, screening sessions, and different others actions which would help people to

8
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
become aware of the healthcare policy content and work as per the guidelines mentioned in the
policy.
The health education model that should be used for making people adheres to the policy:
One of the most important health education models that can be applied for educating the
people and changing their health behavior is trans-theoretical theory of stages of change model.
The first stage is called the pre-contemplation sage when they are not thinking seriously of
changing their health behavior pattern and are trying to defend their current behavioral use
pattern. Before the introduction of the policy, the people might not be aware of any needs of
changing their health behaviors, lifestyle choices and help-seeking behaviors from healthcare
centers. The second stage is called the contemplation stage where people consider the possibility
of changing behaviors but they are seen to be ambivalent about it. In this stage, the policy
makers would be circulating the policy guidelines among the people through emails, posts and
also directly from the healthcare units in the community. Reading the information in the policy,
they, might feel that they need to change their health behaviors but they cannot entirely be
motivated fully to embrace the challenges of lifestyle modifications (Willis et al., 2016). The
third stage is the preparation stage during which they become ready to commit to the changes of
the health behaviors. In this stage, the healthcare professionals would be arranging for health
education sessions where they would be discussing about the information present in the policy
and make people aware of the risks and complications of diabetes. These would make people feel
motivated to prevent themselves from the danger of the disorders. This would make the people
more motivated to adopt the actions mentioned in the policy and abide by them to overcome
chances of developing the disorder. The fourth stage is called the action stage where people
would be involved in taking steps to in changing their behavior and making great steps towards

9
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
significant changes. In this stage, people would continue to follow proper healthcare behaviours
like consuming organic foods, taking up exercises, going for screening sessions, and many others
and follow the policy guidelines to abide by their strategies. This would be followed by the fifth
stage called the maintenance stage where people would be able to successfully avoid any form of
temptations to return into their previous manners and maintain the new behavior diligently. Here,
the policy makers should implement a monitoring committee where professionals would try to
analyze the behavior change of the people and come to an idea whether the policy had become
successfully in reducing the diabetes prevalence in nation. If not, strategies would be modified to
meet the goal successfully.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it can be seen that diabetes is one of the biggest healthcare
burden in the nation which is not only affecting the ability of life of people but also resulting in
huge economic impact on the nation. Hence, policy guidelines and strategies need to be
developed so as to ensure that people of the nation can adopt proper lifestyle modifications that
can help them to lead better lives. The trans-theoretical model would was used for the educating
the people to comply with the policy.

10
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
References:
Ackermann, R. T., Duru, O. K., Albu, J. B., Schmittdiel, J. A., Soumerai, S. B., Wharam, J. F., ...
& NEXT-D Study Group. (2015). Evaluating diabetes health policies using natural
experiments: the natural experiments for translation in diabetes study. American journal
of preventive medicine, 48(6), 747-754.
Alva, M. L., Gray, A., Mihaylova, B., Leal, J., & Holman, R. R. (2015). The impact of diabetes‐
related complications on healthcare costs: new results from the UKPDS (UKPDS
84). Diabetic Medicine, 32(4), 459-466.
Foley, M. H., Steel, A., & Lloyd, I. (2019). Public Health, Policy and Community
Healthcare. Australian Journal of Herbal and Naturopathic Medicine, 31(1).
Frielitz, F. S., Storm, N., Hiort, O., & Katalinic, A. (2019). The creation of a data protection
policy: a guide to telemedicine healthcare projects. Bundesgesundheitsblatt,
Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz.
Herlitz, A., & Horan, D. (2016). Measuring needs for priority setting in healthcare planning and
policy. Social Science & Medicine, 157, 96-102.
Hsu, W. C., Lau, K. H. K., Huang, R., Ghiloni, S., Le, H., Gilroy, S., ... & Moore, J. (2016).
Utilization of a cloud-based diabetes management program for insulin initiation and
titration enables collaborative decision making between healthcare providers and
patients. Diabetes technology & therapeutics, 18(2), 59-67.
Munro, S., Kornelsen, J., Wilcox, E., Kaufman, S., Bansback, N., Corbett, K., & Janssen, P.
(2019). Implementation of shared decision-making in healthcare policy and practice: a

11
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
complex adaptive systems perspective. Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research,
Debate and Practice.
Sanderson, H., Loveman, E., Colquitt, J., Royle, P., Waugh, N., & Tan, B. (2019). Improving
Uptake of Postnatal Checking of Blood Glucose in Women Who Had Gestational
Diabetes Mellitus in Universal Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Review. Journal of
clinical medicine, 8(1), 4.
Sheikh, J., Javaid, M. H., Mamtani, R., Lowenfels, A. B., Kronfol, N. M., Markakis, D., ... &
Ghuloum, S. (2017). Critical Issues in Healthcare Policy and Politics in the GCC.
Vashist, S. K. (2019). Point-of-Care Technologies Enabling Next-Generation Healthcare
Monitoring and Management. Springer.
Wang, W., & Fan, H. (2016). Healthcare challenges in relation to environment, healthcare
providing and policy making. Australasian Medical Journal (Online), 9(12), 541.
Willis, R. D., Wang, Y., Wu, J., Walston, S., & Ambuehl, R. (2016). Is the Safety Net Leaking?:
Measuring Changes in Quality of Care and Healthcare Utilization for Patients with
Diabetes Mellitus before and after Implementation of Cost-Sharing at a Public
Hospital. Int J Community Fam Med, 1(102), 2.