To mark National Diabetes Week 2026 (12–18 July), Chung Wah Community Care (CWCC) teamed up with Diabetes Australia to run health education sessions at its northern and southern hubs. Called “Understanding Diabetes and Reducing Your Risk,” these sessions helped older people and other community members learn about preventing and managing diabetes through easy-to-understand, multilingual information.
The theme for this year’s National Diabetes Week is “Stronger Together,” which focuses on the value of working together through education and community support to prevent and manage diabetes. To support this, CWCC offered multilingual interpretation during the sessions so that older people from different cultural and language backgrounds could understand the information and get important health advice without language barriers.
The sessions mainly covered type 2 diabetes, which is the most common type. Participants found out that over 1.3 million Australians have type 2 diabetes. As people get older and lifestyles change, preventing and managing diabetes is becoming a bigger public health concern.
The presenter talked about the main risk factors for type 2 diabetes, especially for older adults. These include getting older, family history, and being part of certain ethnic groups like Chinese, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Pacific Islander communities, which have a higher risk. Lifestyle factors such as not being active, being overweight, high blood pressure, and smoking were also mentioned. Participants were encouraged to see that many of these risks can be lowered by making healthy choices.
Participants also learned how to spot common signs and symptoms of diabetes, such as feeling tired all the time, being very thirsty, needing to urinate often at night, slow healing of wounds, frequent infections, and blurred vision. Since type 2 diabetes often develops slowly and may not show clear symptoms at first, many people only find out they have it during regular health checks. The presenter encouraged older adults to get regular check-ups so diabetes can be found and treated early.
The presenter also shared practical tips for lowering the risk of diabetes, such as eating a balanced diet, staying active, keeping a healthy weight, quitting smoking, and following your doctor’s advice about regular check-ups and blood sugar monitoring. Although type 2 diabetes cannot be cured right now, the presenter stressed that with healthy habits, the right treatment, and regular medical care, most people can manage the condition well and enjoy a good quality of life.
For CWCC, supporting healthy ageing is about much more than just one education session. At its community hubs, older people can join a variety of health and wellbeing activities, such as seminars, diabetes-friendly meals, exercise programs, and ongoing health promotion. By offering reliable health information and support that respects different cultures, CWCC is dedicated to helping community members live healthier, more active, and more connected lives.
