Vision

All people with type 2 diabetes should be empowered to understand and self-manage their condition. This is an essential part of living with diabetes, in addition to taking medication. We want to contribute to a country where people with diabetes are well controlled, avoid complications and can live life to the full.

Mission

The “Living GREAT with diabetes” initiative focuses on GRoup Empowerment And Training (GREAT) for people with type 2 diabetes and their healthcare workers. We recognise that our healthcare services, particularly in the public sector, are overwhelmed with the number of people who have chronic conditions. It is not feasible to empower patients in a brief and often rushed consultation while trying to get through the long queue of people. It is more efficient and effective to empower people in groups outside of these consultations. In order to do this we also need to train a variety of primary care providers to facilitate these group sessions and have sufficient expertise in diabetes. We would like to see the ‘Living GREAT with diabetes’ initiative in all South African primary care facilities that have sufficient numbers of people with diabetes and staff available to run such sessions.