This year, the CGH Diabetes Centre organised two events to celebrate World Diabetes Day. A diabetes workshop was held on Saturday, 22 November 03 for patients. Another workshop was held earlier on 12 November 03 for CGH staff, mainly nurses and paramedics.

There were 16 participants for the patients’ workshop. All attendees gained tips on self-management, home blood glucose monitoring, nutritional therapy, exercise and stress management Chief Dietitian, Mrs Magdalin Cheong, kicked off the session, with a talk on the importance of self-blood glucose monitoring and carbohydrate counting.

As most Singaporeans enjoy eating, a food court tour was organised so that patients could learn how to choose a healthy meal when eating out. Sous Chef, Derrick Ho’s cooking demonstration had the patients drooling in anticipation. Derek also gave some tips on delicious and yet healthy cooking methods. The patients enjoyed the spread of diabetic food specially prepared by the hospital.

The raffia string game symbolises the importance of teamwork between the patients and the diabetes care team for effective diabetes management.

Diabetes patient, Ho Lye Hon, 73 working out at the Changi Sports Medicine Centre gym.

Living with diabetes can be stressful. Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Angelina Chan, conducted an interactive stress management session with the patients where she taught the patients to understand how stress is manifested in different individuals. Dr Chan also taught them to explore ways of handling stress by asking the patients to share how each of them dealt with it in their own way.

It was then up to Mr Mohd Fawzi, Sports Trainer, to highlight the importance of exercise in diabetes control. His talk was followed by a guided workout with the diabetic patients at the Changi Sports Medicine Centre.

The patients’ post exercise blood profile showed an average blood glucose drop of 2mmol/l and none of the patients experienced hypoglycemia. This proved to the patients that exercise is a very important factor in diabetes control.

The nurses at Diabetes Centre also organised a game to teach patients how to take control of their diabetes. The ball of raffia string was passed from one participant to another after the receiver shared their experience about having diabetes. The receiver would hold on to one end of the string before throwing the ball of raffia to another person. The "throwing" went on until a raffia string web or ‘net work’ was formed. This is symbolic of the teamwork that is important in diabetes care. Having diabetes may look messy at first but patients can control and manager and fight diabetes with success if they worked hand in hand with their healthcare professionals.