Diabetes, mental health & work

One-third of your life is spent at work, meaning your work environment decides much about your mental well-being. The theme of World Mental Health Day 2024, held on 10 October, is “It is Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace".

This day is an opportunity to present the vital connection between mental health and work, a powerful topic for people living with diabetes who often face challenges managing their condition in the workplace, resulting in stigma and discrimination.

Findings published in The Lancet - Diabetes and Endocrinology indicate that “on average, four in five adults with diabetes experience diabetes stigma and one in five experience discrimination (ie, unfair and prejudicial treatment) due to diabetes, such as in health care, education and employment”.

Further findings from cross-sectional research show “up to 11% of adults with type 2 diabetes report workplace discrimination or differential treatment due to diabetes”. ?Additionally, this situation is more common for “women, people from low-income communities and people with type 1 diabetes or insulin-treated type 2 diabetes versus non-insulin-treated diabetes”.

People living with diabetes often face challenges managing their condition in the workplace, resulting in stigma and discrimination

The effect of working environments

Ideal, safe, healthy working environments create positive and productive settings that favour mental health. Conversely, poor working conditions, including stigma, excessive workloads, low job control and job insecurity, can affect mental health, overall quality of life and participation or productivity at work.

In the workplace, negative attitudes towards diabetes present in other societal settings can be amplified, particularly for people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes who need to inject insulin and regularly check glucose levels.

Repeated discrimination and “othering” can ultimately cause feelings of exclusion and anxiety. Thinking you can’t rely on your colleague in case of a “hypo”— when blood glucose levels drop too low — can also affect mental well-being.

Sometimes, to avoid this destructive situation, a person with diabetes may not inform their employer about their condition and hide it from their manager and colleagues. This dissimulation can worsen their condition because they cannot take the necessary breaks to check blood glucose levels and administer treatment.

A person with diabetes may hide their condition at work for fear of stigma and discrimination

Benefits of emotional well-being at work

Stress and stressful situations at work, such as interviews, increased workload and the?threat of redundancy, can affect glucose levels, making diabetes management difficult. This can lead to negative feelings and even depression.

Thankfully, employers are becoming aware of the human and business benefits of supporting all aspects of workplace well-being, including helping employees with diabetes.

Stressful situations at work can affect glucose levels, making diabetes management difficult

Creating a non-judgmental workplace

Employers are ideally positioned to create an open, non-judgmental workplace so employees don’t face diabetes discrimination and feel comfortable at work. A start would be educating workers about diabetes, promoting type 2 diabetes prevention?and building support to ensure the?inclusion of colleagues living with the condition. Additionally, employers can provide a suitable place at work for staff with diabetes to monitor their glucose levels and inject insulin.

A manager of someone with diabetes who might be struggling at work should?sit down with them to discuss any adjustments that can be made to help them through a difficult time. This could be as straightforward as allowing people adequate breaks and time to manage their condition.

Implementing “buddy systems” by training health and safety employees to identify and help a co-worker with diabetes who experiences a hypo, can also be beneficial. This could be as simple as ensuring colleagues know how to provide glucose or dextrose tablets to restore blood glucose to safe levels. More importantly, it would also create a sense of solidarity between employees with diabetes and those without.

If a colleague with diabetes decides to share their condition with you, that’s fine. Simply listening to someone can boost their well-being. However, people with diabetes are not walking encyclopaedias and a go-to source of information on the condition. If you want to learn more about diabetes, national associations or organisations like the International Diabetes Federation can help you.

Most important is creating a sense of solidarity between employees with diabetes and those without

World Diabetes Day focus on well-being

Millions of people with diabetes face daily challenges managing their condition at home, school and work. They must be resilient, organised and focused, which can overwhelm someone and affect their physical and mental well-being. Support for people’s well-being should be included in every aspect of their lives, including work. A collaborative and uplifting workplace can have a positive impact on well-being.

This World Diabetes Day, 14 November, and for the next two years, the theme is “Diabetes and well-being”. Through this campaign, we aim to improve the perception and care of diabetes, focusing on enhancing the physical and mental well-being of people living with the condition and shifting the emphasis from merely managing blood sugar levels to a more comprehensive and person-centred approach.

Learn how to join the campaign this November and support our call for well-being to be put at the heart of diabetes care.

About WMHD

An initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, World Mental Health Day takes place every year on 10 October to spotlight mental health worldwide, raise awareness of mental health issues and encourage efforts to support colleagues experiencing mental health issues.

Learn more about WMHD and how people with diabetes can engage in this year’s theme by participating in the “Voices of the Workplace” initiative.