For World Diabetes Day 2025, four community based organisations (Diabetes Foundation Aotearoa, MHT Diabetes Trust, Diabetes Christchurch and Diabetes Wellington) collaborated with a range of initiatives, including a workplace toolkit with basic information helpful to workplaces, and an online survey supporting the theme “know more and do more for diabetes at work”. Marie Torr and Karen Pickering were fortunate enough to attend the NZSSD conference in Napier on behalf of the group. What did we find? We need to extend the study because in spite of the small sample there were some concerning findings around some entities demonstrating significant lack of understanding and providing limited or variable support. The majority of participants felt external input may be beneficial and had useful suggestions around key areas where intervention (eg, education, policy templates, advocacy) could be undertaken which may provide opportunities for community organisations such as ours. Stigma was identified as a challenging area and being well known as something that impacts how individuals care for themselves requires extra attention.
