Diabetes Management through Autumn

Thank you. And lastly, moving on to the autumn questions. So do the autumn months bring any specific challenges for patients with diabetes? And how would you advise they manage these? So I think in the autumn, people are really getting ready for the winter. You know, the holidays are over, some people feel a bit of a dip in their mood, the days are getting shorter, it's getting colder and it's another time for encouraging people to be optimistic and helping them to once again look at different ways in which they can exercise different resources or using the same resources that they have done through the rest of the year for support and information but encouraging them, reminding them that you know this is just another time of year and again people are also looking forward to Christmas which we know brings its own stresses and strains as well as you know the joy of the festivities and celebrations and the diet that they're worried they're going to be needing to control. So allowing people to not be so rigid with goal-setting at this time of year. And are there any things that you do differently to support patients with diabetes during the autumn months and going into winter? I think it's very much responding to patients' needs. On the whole, the challenges are very much the same as in the rest of the year. In the autumn, I think it's much more when we get to the depths of the winter that it's more difficult. And do your patients make any particular preparations going into the winter months to protect their health? Can you name any examples you may have seen? The whole point about making sure they have adequate medication, have prepared themselves in terms of warmth is very important, that they are maintaining communication with the friends and family that they have or other members of the community.