Diabetes: Mental Health
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans NHS England has to embed mental health support into all diabetes clinics to provide emotional wellbeing for people with type 1 diabetes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The National Health Service does not currently have any plans to introduce a mental health assessment to the annual care check for people with type 1 diabetes or to embed mental health support into all diabetes clinics to provide emotional wellbeing for people with type 1 diabetes.
NHS England is currently funding five Type 1 Disordered Eating (T1DE) pilots, with the aim of increasing understanding of the characteristics and care needs of people with T1DE, assessing the feasibility of the service delivery model and build the evidence base for an integrated diabetes and mental health pathway.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for producing clinical guidelines and quality standards for diabetes care.
The current NICE guideline for type 1 diabetes diagnosis and management states that members of diabetes professional teams should be alert to the symptoms of depression and anxiety, have the appropriate skills to provide basic management and arrange prompt referral to specialists where an individual’s mental health interferes significantly with their wellbeing or self-management. The guideline is available at the following link:
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