The Reality Check website is run by The Type 1 Diabetes Network Inc., an Australian organisation of people with Type 1 Diabetes, founded in 1997. It is actually the largest organisation in Australia run entirely by people with Diabetes, all of whose involvement is voluntary.

The Type 1 Diabetes Network Inc. is particularly active through Victoria, NSW and South Australia but our membership is truly international. We manage the Reality Check website and its active online community, as well as a sister site for parents Munted Pancreas, hold informal seminars and social events. We regularly represent the interests of our members to government, health professional forums and the media.

The Type 1 Diabetes Network is a network of people affected by Type 1 diabetes, creating opportunities to share real-life experiences, information and knowledge in order to make living with diabetes a better experience.

The organisation is run by a dedicated team of volunteers: all people with Type 1 diabetes diabetes ourselves.

For more information:
kate@d1.org.au
Or see our contact us page

Just a quick run down on some of what we do at the moment:

  • This website is full of facts, stories and experiences and everyday life stuff. With an almost 40,000 hits every day, this is the place to be!
  • On the forum page, you can write queries, respond to issues, have a moan, bitch or simply rejoice!
  • Yada Yada, our email newsletter, keep you up-to-date with the latest research info, news from around the country, ideas and stories from real-live diabetics. Contributions and news are always welcomed.
  • Seminars & Events - Sometimes it's good to get together with people of the same age who understand what you mean without having to go into any of that tedious detail, and enjoy a beer at the same time. We also run seminars, and even full on conferences when we can muster the energies.
  • Information: We work to fill gaps in information for young adults with diabetes. Our publications include: Can I Have a Healthy Baby? - a guide to pregnancy with diabetes, A Starter Kit for Adults with Type 1 Diabetes, and a directory of endocrinologists and othe rhelath professionals that have experience working with young adults with Type 1 diabetes..

Authorship

The authors of all information on this website, unless otherwise stated, are not medical professionals but people who live with diabetes themselves and draw on their extensive personal experience, as well as a variety of professional experiences in areas such as writing and online communciation.

Where specific medical advice is given, referencing is given wherever possible. The site manager is also a member of the Australasian Medical Writers Association and all authors are committed to accurate research and communication principles for all information published.

For profiles of contributing authors and editors to Reality Check, please visit About Us.

The information provided by Reality Check is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her doctors, nurses or other medical professionals.

Supporters and Funding

This website is maintained by unpaid volunteers. This site receives no ongoing commercial or external funding, with the exception of occasional advertising which is clearly identiied as such, and is therefore independent.

In 2000-01, support was received from Diabetes Australia-Victoria, who paid the web hosting costs and the services of a web designer to help with content publishing.

Our resource published in October 2004, A Starter Kit for Adults Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes was developed through a major project funded by the Australian government Department of Health & Ageing. The Starter Kit's online publication on this site was also funded by the federal government through this grant. Since 2006, Abbott Diabetes Care have provided significant in-kind support by reprinting and distributing the Starter Kit.

The Type 1 Diabetes Network has been registered by the Australian Tax Office as a Deductible Gift Recipient, effective 1 July 2007.

Gifts of $2 and over are tax-deductible.

Advertising & Sponsorship

From time-to-time the Reality Check website, and our Yada Yada email newsletter, include sponsored advertisements. These ads are always clearly highlighted as being paid advertisements.

In 2001 and 2002, when Reality Check was publishing our printed newsletter Yada Yada, some financial support for publication was receieved by means of advertisements from two companies; Saxby's soft drinks and Roche Diagnostics. This did not however extend to advertisements on the website.

Between 1998 and 2003, Reality Check's in-person events in Melbourne were often supported with sponsorship from companies such as Aventis Pharma, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Bayer Diagnostics, Abbott Medisense, Roche Diagnostics, Medical Specialties Australia and Minimed Australia. The sponsorship in some cases allowed companies to send a representative to the event to demonstrate products and/or provide promotional materials for distribution.

This page last updated February 9, 2008