If you're a type 1 diabetic, JDRF Canada wants you to share your story at local community forum tomorrow.
MPPs and other elected officials, including Newmarket Mayor John Taylor, will be in attendance at the Aug. 27 event in Aurora to connect with constituents and hear their stories about the need for access to affordable type 1 diabetes technologies.
Part of JDRF’s recently launched #AccessforAll campaign, the Technology and Diabetes: Access for All event provides local residents an opportunity to come together to discuss public coverage issues and to advocate for advanced glucose monitor devices to be added to public programs in Ontario.
More than 300,000 diabetics across the country are burdened with crushing out-of-pocket costs that can amount to up to $15,000 every year per person, according to the JDRF news release.
The forum will offer information about new and emerging technologies for managing and treating type 1 diabetes (T1D), including a research presentation by innovative health care researchers and a presentation from dedicated T1D advocates about living with this disease.
Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions and share their stories about the coverage issues they face.
With an estimated 96,570 people living with T1D in Ontario, a large number of Newmarket and Aurora residents are battling the following realities associated with T1D, according to JDRF:
- Every year about 1.4 per cent of patients are hospitalized due to hypoglycemia at a mean cost of $3,775 per patient per year. Another 1.5 per cent of type 1 diabetes patients end up with extra clinical appointments as a result of hypoglycemia at a mean cost of $157 per patient per year.
- Parents, children and adults live with this everyday. Many parents and patients check blood glucose levels every 2 hours — even throughout the night — to prevent hospitalizations.
- Patients from a very young age and their families must manage their disease with insulin either through a pump or through injection. Even with this attention, patients may experience metabolic disorders, loss of consciousness or coma in the short term.
- Over the long term, people with type 1 diabetes can experience serious complications, including stroke, heart disease, nerve damage, and eye damage, leading to blindness, amputations and death. Each complication is a significant burden to patients, their families and our health care system. New and innovative advanced glucose monitoring technologies, such as CGM and FGM, are the standard of care in helping patients and families with type 1 diabetes to manage the disease, with great benefits to their quality of life. But with no public coverage for these devices, patients are left to cover the high costs out-of-pocket.
- Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, the hormone that enables people to get energy from food. This leads to higher levels of glucose in the blood and no amount of diet or exercise can prevent it.
The forum is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Aurora Public Library, 15145 Yonge St., Aurora.
For more information about JDRF, the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes research, visit jdrf.ca, jdrf.ca/accessforall, #AccessforAll, JDRF Canada Facebook, JDRF Canada Instagram.
