Our objective was to research the needs of people with diabetes, their families and educators to help the first group become socially included. We planned to use the knowledge gained throughout the life cycle of that project in a big scale partnership in order to create e-learning tools e.g. a mobile application and a dietary and sport activities. Therefore, our aim was to strengthen people with diabetes and their families and give them space to self-advocate through the joint creation of the outputs and project results. 3 sets of assessments were planned– first for the prototype of a board game; second assessment to help us adapt existing training plans to our target groups needs and third assessment on dietary and physical health situation in partner countries. D-PATH addressed social inclusion. It was designed to be a bottom-up project created by people with diabetes. D-PATH was a response to Sustainable Development Goals - 1/3 reduction in noncommunicable disease mortality through prevention and promotion of well-being lifestyle. When researching we saw that more had to be done to create upskilling pathways, improving accessibility and increasing take-up of adult education in the field of diabetes.
The latest data published in the IDF Diabetes Atlas 9th edition show that 463 million adults are currently living with diabetes. Without sufficient action to address the pandemic, 578 million people will have diabetes by 2030. Three in four people living with diabetes are of working age. This generates a growing human impact and will also drive a serious and expanding strain on productivity and economic growth in the coming decades. An estimated 1.1 million children and adolescents (aged under 20) have type 1 diabetes.Diabetes is currently one of the most psychologically burdensome chronic diseases. This is a family disease, because if diagnosed, it significantly affects everyday life and habits not only of the ill person, but also of other family members. Health education is therefore, one of the essential elements of diabetes therapy, constituting a long-term process, requiring many repetitions of educational cycles. The D-PATH project is a response to these needs. Our objective in this project was to research the needs of people with diabetes, their families and educators because the bottom-up project like ours and peer-learning with the support of the family is a clue for diabetes treatment.