What Are Your Thoughts On Diabetes Complications? Take The BETES Survey

Twitter summary: Take THE BETES survey about your perspective on #diabetes “complications” – using theater to help impact #chronicdisease

How do people with diabetes feel about the possibility and reality of diabetes complications, and how do they define “diabetes complications”? This is the question THE BETES Organization seeks to answer in its new project, “Diabetes Complications: We Need a New Success Story.” This project aims to collect thoughts and feelings from people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and eventually translate them into a theater program to be performed across the United States in community and clinical settings.

The project has three steps:

1. Take the survey about complications to voice your experience with this sensitive and complex topic. You can choose to be anonymous, or to make your name known so that you can be selected for an in-depth interview. The survey is open until December 5th!

2. Around 20 people will be chosen for an in-depth individual interview based on their responses. The rest of the participants will have the opportunity to participate in group interviews online.

3. The stories and experiences from the survey and interviews will be transformed into a creative and therapeutic theater program.

THE BETES will premier the theater program in March 2016 at an event for 200 diabetes care providers including nurses, endocrinologists, educators, and mental and social health workers. This will allow people with diabetes to share their personal thoughts on “complications” and reach the broader medical community.

About THE BETES & Medical Humanities

THE BETES Organization is a non-profit dedicated to creating a path to “joyful health” for people with chronic health conditions through theater-driven programming.

THE BETES is part of the Narrative Medicine and Medical Humanities movement, which works with a cultural model of health rather than a “medical model.” Narrative medicine brings a more holistic understanding of health, taking into account the unique social and psychological influences on each person’s experience.

The “Complications Project” is part of THE BETES mission to share the message that “Health Care is a Human Story.” Join this movement by taking the survey, and learn more about THE BETES here. –NK