Ted Mahood joined Stepping Up Telehealth just over a year ago and since then has lost 22 kilograms through reduced food intake and regular exercise.

“I suppose you could say they fired me up and got me going,” he said.

Mr Mahood, 74, was diagnosed with diabetes 24 years ago and in recent years his treatment regime had needed to intensify.

“I was just coasting for years, I’d just go, ‘Yeah, that’s near enough’,” he said. 

“It just got that way that my readings were so high they put me on to insulin.” 

But now Mr Mahood swims three times a week, walks for up to an hour on the other days and has been taken off insulin.

“I’m going to try and stay like this for the rest of my life,” he said,

Stepping Up Telehealth involved a group of patients from Beechworth, Wangaratta, Wodonga and Deniliquin taking part in Skype appointments with Melbourne specialists, which reduced the need to travel. GPs, diabetes educators and practice nurses were also included in conferences.

Mr Mahood’s doctor, Wendy Connor, said she appreciated the team approach fostered by this method.

“In general practice what we find quite often is when we send people off to see a specialist, they go off, a lot of things happen,” she said.

“The care tends to become a little bit more fragmented rather than team focused.”

Dr Connor said she had also discovered new information herself that she could then use with other patients “which again I may not have learned had I not been in the room”.

Stepping Up Telehealth research nurse Karrie Long said the pilot program encouraged patients to review how they managed their diabetes.

“They got access to health professionals they hadn’t seen for some time or thought ‘I no longer need that diabetic nurse/educator, I know everything’,” she said.

“So different person, different information seemed to make a difference.”

Associate Professor of rural ageing and aged care Irene Blackberry said only one in 400 specialist consultations involved telehealth but the pilot project, which she hoped might expand, showed its potential benefits.

“We’re not saying it’s the answer to everything but people need to be willing to give it a try,” she said.

REDUCING the impact of diabetes, a condition that leads to more than 4400 amputations in Australia each year, remains a key focus of the national awareness week.

Beechworth GP Wendy Connor said prevention had to be a priority, for example encouraging healthy diets and exercise, and new research into the first 1000 days, that is, the period from conception to the age of two.

“In that period of time there are many factors which determine the health trajectory of a person for their lifetime,” Dr Connor said.

Wodonga fitness professional Josh Dickinson said losing weight also improved overall quality of life: “It’s giving them back their vitality, they’re more energetic with their family and their kids.”

Diabetes can affect feet through poor circulation and damaged nerves. Albury-Wodonga Diabetes Support Group secretary Jill Craig said good foot care could help lower amputation rates.

“To the person, to their family and the dollar value of cost to the medical system is huge,” she said.

THE more information the better is the motivation behind a public diabetes event in Albury next week.

Living with Diabetes – What Now? will offer presentations from diabetes health professionals as well as a person living with type 2 diabetes.

Albury-Wodonga Diabetes Support Group secretary Jill Craig hoped as many people with diabetes, their carers and their families would attend.

“It’s all about taking the best possible care of yourself that helps prevent all the complications that can arise,” she said. “Make your own decisions but have the background with as much information as you can and that’s what this night’s about.”

Ms Craig, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 49 years ago as a child, has seen many developments in treatment over that time.

“I’ve never let it hold me back,” she said. “I travel overseas, ride horses, get on with life and keep down a job.”

Living with Diabetes – What Now? will take place on July 21 at the Commercial Club Albury from 7.30pm.