Kevin Frankish aims to stomp out stigma surrounding diabetes

The ‘Above the Bias’ campaign aims to break the stigma surrounding diabetes.

A familiar face across Simcoe County is looking to use his platform to change the conversation surrounding a diabetes diagnosis.

Kevin Frankish has been living with Type 2 diabetes for the better part of the last decade. Now the longtime Ontario media personality is taking part in Abbott’s Above the Bias Campaign, looking to stomp out negative presumptions surrounding that diagnosis.

“If someone says something to you, you take it to heart; especially if it’s negative, you just take it to heart,” Frankish says in response to new data that shows how a majority of Canadians living with the disease are shamed.

According to the survey, about a third of Canadians living with diabetes have either skipped or missed an appointment with their healthcare professional due to shame and stigma with their diagnosis. The Above the Bias campaign is looking to put an end to those assumptions that Diabetes Canada says are incorrect.

“We’ve got to change the beliefs and the attitudes about diabetes so that people feel comfortable taking control of their diabetes and, you know, sharing with their family and their health care providers and then getting that support they need,” said Laura Syron, the president and CEO of Diabetes Canada who herself lives with type 2.

The survey also shows that 74 per cent of Canadians with diabetes said the condition has negatively impacted their mental health.

These are feelings that Syron herself had when she was diagnosed eight years ago. Upon hearing the news she was immediately overcome with feelings of blaming herself.

“Because I didn’t know much, I just found my head got filled with I should have gone to the gym or I didn’t eat properly, I my God, what have I done?”

Eventually Syrons switched to a new physician who she says immediately provided her with the critical support she was looking for.

“She goes, ‘you know, it’s not your fault.’ And those words from my health care provider were huge,” Syrons said. “I said, ‘actually, I don’t know that. Can you explain more to me?’”

Through taking part in this campaign, Syrons is hoping to fill the gaps on a lack of understanding of the disease by arming the public with facts. She hopes that the campaign will help break down stigmas that are keeping many away from accessing support they need.

She compares it to attention given to mental health in recent years, a subject that was far more taboo at the start of this century.

“Fifteen or 20 years ago when [mental health] wasn’t talked about, it was often misunderstood,” Syrons said. “People sort of felt like, well, if I disclose, I’ll get judged, you know, and then a lot of corporate partners, a lot of different people to make that see change we’ve seen.”

Dr. Hertzel Gerstein has been studying the disease for more than 40 years. Over that time he’s seen countless patients struggle with the diagnosis.

“If I have a patient with recently diagnosed diabetes, there is about a 50/50 chance that they will start crying. If I just say to them, ‘you have diabetes and it’s not your fault;’ as soon as I say that to them, people break into tears and I ask them why they’re crying and they say because everybody in their life is telling them how they’ve brought themselves.”

While Gerstein says there is still much to learn about this disease, including the exact cause, there is enough data to show that diabetes is not self-induced.

“People do not cause their own diabetes in the same way that they don’t cause their own cancer or they don’t cause any other disease, that they’re unfortunate enough to have,” Gerstein said.

The campaign, which launched earlier this month and will run on an ongoing basis, is aiming to reshape how many people have conversations around this diagnosis.

“Diabetes is something that very much sneaks up on you,” Frankish said. “If you don’t take care of it now and constantly, then it’s going to slowly, slowly take over before it becomes unstoppable and untreatable. So this is why this campaign is so important to stop that stigma.”

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