The Yukon T1D Support Network is comprised of volunteers who work diligently to ensure Yukon residents with Type 1 Diabetes receive the best health care available. One component of this care is the individualization of glucose monitoring; we believe that the means in which one manages glucose is personal because each individual understands what works best for them. For many persons with T1D, Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) have revolutionized how they manage their glucose levels and these devices are incorporated into their standard of care.
We have been consistent in our message to Yukon Government: all persons with T1D should be able to access CGMs. This has been a steady communication that has been greatly supported by both the Official Opposition and the Third Party. Third Party Leader Kate White provided a thoroughly researched motion for full CGM coverage in the Legislative Assembly in Spring of 2019. Official Opposition Leader Stacey Hassard and caucus member Scott Kent have regularly pressured Yukon to provide full CGM coverage for all Yukon residents with T1D.
In addition to these bipartisan efforts, there have been grassroots efforts to ensure CGMs are made available, largely through a two-year project with Yukon Government. The Yukon T1D Support Network entered into a pilot project to offer CGM provisions for adults aged 19-25, and through fundraising efforts we have provided partial CGM coverage to older adults who have expressed interest in receiving CGMs. At the terminus of our pilot, we were informed that Yukon sole-sourced an evaluation team from outside of the territory (the hiring of which was in contravention of Minister Pauline Frost’s statement of Tuesday, November 5, in which she stated that the Yukon T1D Support Network would be included in the hiring process). In initial conversations that were had with the hired team, it was clear that there was no comprehensive understanding of T1D and the role that CGMs hold in management of the disease. We spoke to the team on three occasions, and final results of the stunted six-week evaluation showed that our involvement had largely been as viewed as token, as had the engagement of our adult CGM population.
Why does this matter? It is of consequence because a population with disability was not adequately consulted on a project that directly affects their daily lives. It is of importance because a cursory evaluation helped to formulate Yukon Government’s decision to implement a partial measure of CGM coverage, dismissing the criticality of CGMs in the lives of adults and solely committing to children’s coverage.
In Yukon’s precipitance effort to pass spring 2020 budget, leverage was obtained by ceding to one request of both Opposition parties. To pass budget, Yukon Party requested Continuous Glucose Monitors be funded for all Yukon residents with Type 1 Diabetes, and on March 19 they stayed until wee hours of the night to ensure that this request was granted. Among others, Stacey Hassard, Scott Kent, Jonas Smith, and Ted Laking were present to hear Premier Silver’s commitment to fund CGMs for all persons with T1D. This commitment was layered, as it was to provide permanent CGM coverage for children and a CGM program for adults. Unfortunately, in scramble to execute an undemocratic and wholly partisan budget, Yukon Government removed the word ‘continuous’ from its commitment to the adult glucose monitoring program. We believe that this omission was based upon the recommendation of well intentioned junior staffers who based their directions on an evaluation that had limited scope and a tight timeline.
So hopeful were we that we initially failed to recognize the exclusion of the word ‘continuous’; it was only a period of time after government’s commitments were relayed that we were notified that an adult program may not be of the ‘continuous’ form. We did press government on this issue and were informed that they would adhere to evidence on CGMs. This is a curious position to hold, as rich, qualitative and quantitative, Yukon-based, adult T1D evidence that could have been garnered during an evaluation was impeded, if not dissuaded. Rather, the evidence that Yukon Government seeks is non-existent; so rapidly changing is CGM technology that it is counterproductive to make requisite. We are not attempting to assuage evidence as a necessity. We mean to emphasize that local and empirical evidence does exist and Yukon Government has, thus far, squandered opportunity to use jurisdictional data as key information.
Removing the word ‘continuous’ disheartens us as it is layered in myriad ways Yukon Government has failed to listen to citizens with Type 1 diabetes. We are incredibly thankful that the The Yukon Party, in its sole request to meet government’s demands to pass budget, advocated fully on behalf of those with disability. We are hopeful that Yukon Government will engage in transparent and fulsome engagement with the Yukon T1D Support Network in effort to ensure that Continuous Glucose Monitors are accessible to ALL Yukon residents with Type 1 Diabetes.
The Yukon T1D Support Network