Diabetes and your health: social life

The transition to adulthood can be a difficult time for any young person. Life gets more complicated and can sometimes get in the way of diabetes. There are lots of issues that you may have questions about – please contact a member of the diabetes team where these can be discussed confidentially. We run a young adult clinic where you are encouraged to take a more active part in the consultation and to allow you to meet members from the adult diabetes team. There are lots of resources online for young people with diabetes, some better than others. Diabetes UK works with young people and has developed a site that contains lots of information about the stuff that matters to you.

Having diabetes does not prevent you learning to drive, but it does mean that you need to plan in advance before you get behind the wheel.  Hypos can cause confusion and affect your ability to drive which puts you at risk of having an accident. You are required by law to inform the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), if you are on insulin and would like to apply for a driving licence.  The Diabetes UK contains some useful information on driving with diabetes.
The DVLA list a number of requirements including:

• Inform the DVLA if you have Type 1 diabetes and are driving – your insurance will be invalid if you don’t
• Adequate hypo awareness
• No more than one episode of severe hypoglycaemia in the past 12 months
• When driving, stop and check your blood glucose every 2 hours
• Meet the standard visual requirements

Check your blood glucose before driving- no more than 2 hours before. The DVLA advise that if blood glucose is 5mmol/l or less you should take carbohydrate before driving. If it is less than 4mmol/l do not drive - treat  treat your hypo and wait for at least 45mins until your blood sugar is above 5mmol/l.
General advice for safe driving:

• Keep hypo treatments with you at all times
• Keep a close check on your blood glucose (BG) -no longer than 2 hours before driving and every 2 hours whilst driving

If you have a hypo while driving

• STOP the car as soon as possible
• REMOVE the keys to show you are not in charge of the car
• MOVE into the passenger seat if safe to do so
• TREAT the hypo
• WAIT until your BG has recovered above 5mmol/l at least 45 mins before driving again.

This was a series of workshops held over a period of 12 weeks at the Dundee Rep. The workshops were designed to enable young people with diabetes to meet others of a similar age and to allow them to explore the issues that matter most to them. At the end of the 12 weeks, the young people gave a performance about living with diabetes to over 400 people.