Diabetes Smart

Diabetes Smart facilitator smiling with a member of the course.

Diabetes Smart is a free course to support local people living with pre-diabetes and type 1 and 2 diabetes.

The free course is facilitated by our trained professionals in venues across Wirral. It’s an opportunity for people to learn about making positive lifestyle changes and managing their pre diabetes and type 1 and 2 diabetes.

Our free and informative course is designed to help people:

think smart – think differently about their diagnosis
act smart – make informed choices (healthy eating, physical activity, self-care)
live smart – manage their diabetes /pre-diabetes on a daily basis

How the course is delivered

It’s recommended that everyone who books onto the course attends a core session first. This session focuses on what pre diabetes and diabetes is and how people can manage their condition.

Following attendance on the core session there are 8 practical modules people can choose from including:

healthy lifestyle: healthy food choices and support to manage weight (2 sessions, 2 hrs per session)
carbohydrate awareness: what carbohydrates are and how they affect blood glucose levels (2 hr session)
reading and understanding food labels: using food labels to guide food choices (1.5 hour session)
keeping well with diabetes: how to prevent potential health problems linked with diabetes (2.5 hour session)
physical activity: benefits of physical activity and ways to get more active (1.5 hr session)
insulin: for people treating diabetes with insulin – all aspects of managing diabetes using insulin injections (1.5 hr session)
review session: opportunity to review how people are managing their pre diabetes/diabetes, revisiting ways of managing the conditions and sharing top tips (2 hr session)

Download the Diabetes Smart leaflet

Download the 2020/2021 course timetable

Feedback from people who have attended the course:

William from West Kirby, who had type 2 diabetes, has attended our course and since making some small lifestyle changes his blood glucose has dropped from 52 to 42.

He said, “Diabetes Smart helped me to understand that type 2 diabetes was linked to the sugar levels in the blood and not to your actual sugar intake. The programme has helped me make changes to my lifestyle; I’ve cut down on alcohol and I follow a strict diet. I found the carbohydrate awareness session really useful – it made me aware of what carbohydrates are and how they affect blood glucose levels. I’ve lost over four stone – an achievement I’m really proud of. I feel more active and a lot happier.

I’d recommend Diabetes Smart to everyone. You learn things you don’t think about and are encouraged to try different foods. It’s a very informative programme.”

Watch Barbara’s Diabetes Smart story below on YouTube – a video of Barbara’s experience of the Diabetes Smart programme and how it has helped her:

Barbara’s Diabetes Smart story