Once or twice in the years I’ve been working in the diabetes advocacy space, I have spoken and written about diabetes and language. And by once or twice, I mean rarely a day goes by when I don’t hashtag language matters somewhere on some social network.

You can call me a one trick pony (or Blossom), but I don’t mind, because I think that trick is pretty bloody important, and for the last eight years, I have been more than happy to highlight why the words we use when speaking about diabetes is critically important.

The first time I spoke about this was at the launch of the Diabetes Australia position statement, ‘A New Language for Diabetes’. I stood on stage at the Victoria State Library alongside Diabetes Australia CEO, Greg Johnson and ACBRD Director, Jane Speight as we started what has become a movement, supported by the diabetes community around the world. This was in September 2011 and this photo is from that day.

Now, eight years later, it’s time to revise the statement the started the #LanguageMatters juggernaut, and that’s where you come in.

Diabetes Australia is inviting people living with diabetes, their friends and families and HCPs to complete a survey about to have their say about the words and language used when speaking and writing about diabetes. This is your chance to share what is important to you, what really matters and what doesn’t really bother you at all. We know that the way we communicate about diabetes does matter, but we need your help to shape our revised survey.

Click on the word cloud below to be taken to the survey, and please share in all your networks. We need to hear from you to help build the evidence for why this continues to be a critical issue in diabetes care and communications. Please help us do that!

DISCLOSURE

I work for Diabetes Australia and am on the working group reviewing the Language Position Statement. I was also involved in the development of the initial statement. I have not been asked by Diabetes Australia to share details of the survey which will be used to inform the revision, but of course I am, because how could I not?!