Megan is a research assistant on a 5-year diabetes distress programme within the Division of Care in Long Term Conditions in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care. Living with type 1 diabetes herself, she has a special interest in understanding and improving experiences of diabetes care. The diabetes distress programme (PI Prof Jackie Sturt) aims to combine successful international interventions for detecting, managing and preventing diabetes distress into a care pathway suitable for people with type 1 diabetes in the UK.

Megan is undertaking a part-time PhD alongside her RA role to adapt this pathway - specifically the interventions to detect and manage moderate-to-severe diabetes distress - for people living with type 2 diabetes. For people with type 2 diabetes, the seven most common sources of distress differ, and even where sources of distress overlap with that of people living with type 1 diabetes, the management of the two conditions is so different that the sources of distress within the management regime differs significantly. The more intensive interventions to manage the higher levels of distress therefore require unique content and approach specific to the population of people with type 2 diabetes, and their needs relating to the differing sources of distress.