How do I develop empathy with a diabetic?
You live exactly as a diabetic lives for a period of time. This idea was developed at the Diabetic Unit of the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Center in Western Australia, where they believed that the staff who treated diabetics needed to know what their patients' lives were really like. Volunteers for the experiment were required to take injections, using a saline solution instead of insulin, test their urine, eat the diabetic diet including snacks at the proper time, etc. These educators only had to "be diabetic" for a week, but some of them couldn't even last that long. The only one who was really successful at it just gave up her social life entirely and stayed at home catering to her diabetes. That, of course, isn't the way to do it. You're supposed to lead a normal life. After all, that's the goal for diabetics and that's what everyone else is always telling them they can do. As Dr. Martyn Sulway, the physician in charge of the program put it, ...