An intensive education programme for people with type 1 diabetes

In the year 2000, approximately 330,000 people in the UK had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (Williams and Pickup, 2000), and this number is growing yearly. It is usually diagnosed in children and young adults although it can occur at any age. The onset of diabetes is usually sudden and results from destruction of the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas leading to a total loss of insulin secretion. Insulin injections and dietary modification are necessary treatments after diagnosis. Some patients find these changes difficult--a case study used in this article Illustrates the challenges they face.