Policy Implementation on Diabetes

Running head: POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON DIABETES
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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

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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.

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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