Tag Archive for: person-centered diabetes care

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From Burnout to Belonging: Humanizing the Diabetes Experience

The Side of Diabetes We Don’t Talk About Enough

When we think of diabetes management, we often think of tasks: Check. Count carbs. Correct. Dose insulin. (Log?) Repeat.

But behind those tasks lies something much heavier, which is the emotional labor of a chronic condition that never takes a day off. We all know the feeling.

Burnout, frustration, fear, exhaustion, invisibility, which are unsurprisingly just as much a part of the diabetes experience as insulin, pumps and glucose meters.

And yet, the emotional side remains one of the least addressed aspects of care. Minimal check ins and management, often unless you are strong enough to admit that you need support yourself.

We cannot build truly person-centered diabetes care without naming this truth: diabetes is not just managed. It’s carried.

What Diabetes Burnout Really Looks Like

Diabetes burnout isn’t laziness, noncompliance, or a lack of education. It is rather the natural human response to relentless pressure.

It can look like, for example, ignoring numbers because they feel too overwhelming, feeling judged by a device or a graph, resenting a body that seems unpredictable, dreading appointments instead of looking forward to support, or that dreaded feeling of feeling alone, even when surrounded by people who very well understand you and where you are.

Burnout is not a personal failing, it is a signal that you need better support.

Is “Belonging” The Antidote to Burnout?

If burnout thrives in isolation, then belonging thrives in connection. At least it should.

Belonging means to be listened to without judgment, to know that your experiences are valid, to feel safe to share the hard moments, to be seen as a partner, not someone to be managed, as well as to see your reality reflected in that of others.

This is where person-centered care becomes transformative. Because person-centered care doesn’t just treat the condition,
it truly supports the person carrying it.

What Does It Really Take to Humanize Diabetes Care?

Healthcare systems often focus on what’s quantifiable, numbers, results, something palpable to show how you are doing in your management. Yet, something as “fluffy” as emotional wellbeing is (also) central to outcomes, resilience, and long-term engagement.

To humanize care, we have to start asking about how people feel, not just how they dose, normalize discussions about diabetes distress and burnout, engage in training healthcare teams in empathy and trauma-informed communication, integrate mental health support as part of standard care, encourage shared decision-making, not “compliance”-based conversations, and, perhaps most importantly. make room for the person’s life context, values, and emotional needs!

This is not “soft care.” It is foundational care, which leads to better clinical, emotional, and quality-of-life outcomes.

Where VBHC Meets Human Experience

In Value-Based Health Care (VBHC), health is defined by outcomes that matter to patients. And what actually matters most often lies beyond clinical metrics.

This is why I’m so fascinated by VBHC tools, because PROMs and PREMs have the ability to capture elements like emotional wellbeing, confidence in self-management and self-care, social participation, trust in the care team, and if there is a sense of control for the person.

These are not secondary factors. They are the difference between surviving and living fully with diabetes.

Systems that honor these outcomes create healthcare environments where belonging becomes part of the treatment plan.

The Power of Diabetes Burnout

During a workshop a few years ago, I asked participants living with type 1 diabetes to describe the hardest part of their daily management.

Not one person mentioned A1c, insulin, time-in-range, or tech.

Instead, they mentioned things like:

“The pressure.”
“The guilt.”
“The loneliness.”
“The fear of getting it wrong.”

That day, something became very clear for me, which is that diabetes care must expand to include emotional infrastructure, or it will always fall short of outcomes that matter to people living with diabetes.

From Burnout to Belonging: A Vision for What’s Possible

Imagine a world where emotional support is routine, not reactive, where people feel safe sharing the messy middle, and healthcare teams value emotional data as much as clinical data. Additionally, care is measured not only in metrics, but in meaning, and belonging is built into the system, not left to chance?

This is the future of person-centered care. And it especially has to become the future of diabetes care. The best thing is that it’s within reach if we choose to prioritize humanity in healthcare.

Let’s Talk About It

What’s something you wish your diabetes care team understood about the emotional side of diabetes?

Or, if you’re a healthcare professional, what helps you create a space of belonging for your patients?

Share your thoughts below or connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram (@hannadiabetesexpert).


Humanizing care starts with conversations like these. 💙

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Beyond A1c: Why Lived Experience Should Guide Diabetes Care

The A1c Trap: When Numbers Take Center Stage

For decades, HbA1c, which is a measure of average blood glucose over the past three-or-so months, has been the ultimate marker of “good” diabetes management. It’s printed on lab reports, discussed in every appointment, and often used as a measure of success or failure. Add to this, percentages of Time In Range (TIR), and Time In Normoglycaemia (TING), along with Standard Deviation (SD) of blood glucose values, and we have a perfect sotrm of various metrics.

But here’s the thing: A1c et al. only tells part of the story.

It can’t show sleepless nights after stubborn highs. It doesn’t capture the mental gymnastics of counting carbs, managing stress, or fearing hypos. And it certainly doesn’t measure how a person feels living with diabetes day after day.

If we want to deliver better outcomes, we must look beyond A1c and realted metrics, and start listening to the people behind the numbers

Lived Experience Is Data, Too

In health care, we love measurable metrics. It makes an invisible condition more palpable, something to benchmark, relate to and (gasp!) even compare oneself with. But what about the unmeasured? Things like energy levels, quality of life, resilience, or the sense of doing well?

These aspects are more easily captured through Patient/Person-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient/Person-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs), in other words tools that quantify what truly matters to people living with the condition.

But beyond tools and surveys lies something even more powerful: lived experience.

As someone who’s lived with type 1 diabetes for almost four decades, I’ve seen how personal stories can reveal insights that numbers simply can’t. A lived experience lens helps us understand why a therapy isn’t working for that specific person, how routines fit into real life, and what support is needed to actually make care sustainable.

When we bring lived experience into clinical design, policymaking, and innovation, care becomes real-world ready

Why the System Still Leans on A1c

There are good reasons A1c became a global standard: it’s quantifiable, comparable, and clinically meaningful. But it’s also convenient. Yet, convenience can easily become complacency.

Health systems are often designed to reward what’s easy to measure, not necessarily what’s meaningful to measure. That’s where Value-Based Health Care (VBHC) can change the game.

VBHC shifts focus from volume to value, from “How much care was delivered?” to “Did it actually improve people’s lives?” And to answer that question, we need both data and dialogue.

Real Value Is Human Value

When lived experience guides care, everyone benefits:

  • People with diabetes feel seen and supported, not judged by a number.
  • Clinicians gain richer context to guide decisions and build trust.
  • Systems and payers invest in interventions that create true quality of life improvements.

That’s not “soft” care. That’s smart care, making the whole value-chain of care more sustainable.

A Moment That Changed My Thinking

A few years ago, I was invited to review a hospital’s diabetes education program. Everything looked perfect on paper, with their excellent glycemic outcomes, detailed protocols, impressive graphs.

But when I spoke with people receiving care at this clinic, a pattern emerged:

“I understand the theory. I just can’t make it work in my daily life.”
“I feel guilty when my numbers aren’t perfect.”
“I wish someone would ask what success means to me.”

The gap between what’s measured and what’s meaningful is where we lose people, and casually label them “lost to follow up”. And it’s exactly where person-centered care must step in.

From Outcomes to Impact

Imagine if every diabetes clinic measured not just numbers and A1c’s, but also:

  • Sleep quality and fatigue levels
  • Confidence in self-management
  • Emotional wellbeing
  • Social participation and daily function

These dimensions of health are already used in progressive VBHC initiatives. They transform care from transactional to transformational, because they tell us whether care actually works in people’s lives.

Beyond A1c: A Call for Co-Creation

Moving beyond A1c isn’t about abandoning data, but rather about expanding it. It’s about pairing clinical evidence with human evidence. A match made in real-world management of a relentless condition.

The most innovative health care systems of the future will be those that co-create care with people, integrating lived experience as a cornerstone, not an afterthought.

Because in the end, A1c may show certain aspects of management, but lived experience shows meaning.

Join the Conversation

What’s one thing you wish your diabetes care team measured or asked about — beyond A1c?
Share your thoughts in the comments or connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram @hannadiabetesexpert.

Let’s make diabetes care more human, together. 💙

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