Self-administration of insulin in community

Community patients
Patient Information Leaflet

Community support with your insulin.

How can we help?

How can the community team support you?

• Together yourself and your diabetes team/GP have agreed that you need to start insulin injections to help manage your diabetes in the best way.
• This may be a daunting step but with the right support and education you and your family can manage your injections safely and independently.
• It is important to be able to do this for yourself and insulin is typically a lifelong medication. Self-management of injections encourages you to get your insulin at the right time and the right dose to keep you as healthy as possible.
• As well as administrating your own insulin you will be expected to monitor your own blood sugar levels, this may be via a sensor or finger prick testing.

The Community Nursing Team

• Community nurses and healthcare assistants are trained to be able to offer education and support for patients in their own homes. This means they will only become involved with your care if you are housebound, or for a short period whilst they teach you how to manage your diabetes.
• The team will contact you to arrange an initial visit to your home, so it is a good idea to have family members there when the nurse first comes.
• The first visit usually lasts around an hour, and they will support you with insulin storage, techniques and blood sugar management.
• We do understand there are many areas of diabetes that you wish to discuss, and the nurse will do this on your first visit.
• Several more visits will be arranged when you need to administer your insulin so the nurse can see that you and your family are learning to manage the injections and blood sugar monitoring.

Dudley District Nursing Teams and Locations and contact numbers:

• Brierley Hill – Brierley Hill Health and Social Care Centre – 01384 321484
• Kingswinford – Brierley Hill Health and Social Care Centre – 01384 321506
• Dudley and Netherton – St James Medical Practice – 01384 366833
• Coseley, Sedgley and Gornal – Ladies Walk Practise – 01384 321402
• Stourbridge, Lye and Wollescote – Stourbridge Health and Social
• Care Centre – 01384 323179/01384 323766
• Halesowen – Halesowen Health Centre – 0121 602 8833
• Out of Hours Service – 01384 456111 Russells Hall Switchboard

The District Nursing teams can be contacted directly Monday to Friday between 8am-6pm.

Please note due to the nature of the service provision you may need to leave a message on the answer phone and staff will contact you at their earliest convenience. After 1730 until 0800 please contact Russells Hall switch board on 01384 456111. On weekends and bank holidays please contact Russells Hall switch board on 01384 456111.

Whilst the community nurses will support you, it is important that you and your family understand that the support cannot be indefinite. We aim to get people on insulin injections independent in 2 weeks. Many people find that they can manage this sooner than that. It is only in exceptional circumstances that nurses will support longer than 2 weeks.

If you have any questions, or if there is anything you do not understand about this leaflet, please contact Russells Hall Hospital on 01384 456111.

If you have any feedback on this patient information leaflet, please email dgft.patient.information@nhs.net

Originator: Eleanor Withers Date originated: June 2026. Review date: September 2026. Version: 1 . DGH ref.: DGH/PIL/02181