Psychological Services

 

Empowering patients by allowing the mind to believe, which helps in making the body achieve. Diabetes usually requires substantial life-long self-management by the patient. Psychological factors and the patient’s health beliefs are important determinants of self-care behaviour. Education has a modest influence on generating better self-care, but psychologically based interventions are clearly more effective. The diagnosis of diabetes has a major psychological impact. Adjustment of the individual to this psychological blow is critical. We need positive adjustment in which individuals accept the diagnosis and the need for lifestyle change. Though we as a team do work towards the patients sometimes a psychologist’s intervention is necessary for acceptance and adjustment.

Patients with diabetes exhibit anxiety or worries regarding diabetes complications, insulin injections or infusion, taking medications, and/or hypoglycaemia that interfere with self-management behaviour’s and those who express fear, dread, or irrational thoughts and/or show anxiety symptoms such as avoidance behaviour’s, excessive repetitive behaviour’s, or social withdrawal.

Effective diabetes management requires adherence to a chronic and complex regimen and, accordingly, nonadherence is the norm rather than the exception. Psychological treatments may be used to improve adherence to the diabetes regimen and, more generally, to develop sustained pro-diabetic lifestyles.

One in every four diabetic patients suffers from recurring problems with depression, anxiety, or eating disorders. These conditions respond well to psychological treatment, and in many cases, relief of distress is associated with improved glycaemic control.

Children and adolescents with diabetes present with psychological problems in different ways than adults and require appropriate psychological care to intervene at their specific developmental level.

The psychologist provides direct services to the patient via promotion of health behaviour’s and treatment of psychological problems, and also provides consultation to the medical team on how to incorporate psychological principles into patient care to enhance clinical outcomes.

Management

• Screening for depression, anxiety, and disordered eating using validated and appropriate measures.
• Assess for diabetes distress using validated and appropriate measures.
• Investigate for psychosocial problems and other barriers to diabetes self-management such as limited financial, logistical, and support resources.
• Checking for disordered or disrupted eating when hyperglycaemia and weight loss are unexplained based on self-reported behaviour’s related to medication dosing, meal plan, and physical activity.