Two years ago, Keith from Warrington was struggling with his weight as a result of poor dietary choices. After suffering from a serious health scare, resulting in a diagnosis of diabetes, it was time Keith made a change.
This is Keith’s story.
After years of a diet full of sweets, sugary drinks and refusing healthier choices suggested, Keith experienced a traumatic health scare.
One evening, staff noticed that one side of Keith's face had dropped and feared that he was suffering from a stroke. Acting quickly, the team called an ambulance and Keith was rushed to the hospital.
Following numerous tests, it became evident that Keith had suffered an episode of Bells-Palsy, a type of facial paralysis due to his extremely high blood sugar levels. Immediately, Keith was diagnosed with diabetes and he was referred to a dietician who advised Keith on how to best manage his diet.
Nick, a Senior Support Worker at MacIntyre who works closely with Keith shared how he and the team worked with the dietician to support Keith to make healthier choices.
"We sat down and had a meeting about how to support Keith to make these changes. Keith is unable to read but can recognise colours and had recently received a mobility car. Keith was always talking about traffic lights, so we came up with the idea of using a traffic light system for Keith around his food."
Nick added:
"Most food packing now has five nutrition labels, with either green for 'good' amber for 'ok' and red for 'bad'. Utilising this, we used the term for green for 'go' and amber to 'get ready' and red for 'stop and think."
For Keith, this was a step in the right direction. Immediately, he began choosing foods with green labels when out shopping, refusing to purchase anything with red labels. He also began to feel as though he had more energy to take part in the activities he enjoyed.
As a result, six months after his initial diagnosis Keith was taken off one of his diabetic medications. Now, a year on Keith is delighted to share that he is no longer diabetic.
To find out more about health and wellbeing at MacIntyre, please get in touch using the contact form below.
