Social & Behaviour Change
October 20th, 2025
Type 1 Diabetes: The Invisible Battle
How we used SBC to shrink a 12-month learning curve into 3 months
Ankita Mirani, Social Designer and Founder @Social Innovation Studio
Archana A S, Communication Lead @Social Innovation Studio
What’s Inside:
Introduction
Type 1 diabetes is not your run-of-the-mill “too much sugar” condition. It’s an uninvited lifelong companion for children between the ages 0–14.
Globally, ~184,100 children are diagnosed each year, that is roughly one new diagnosis every three minutes. Global Health Progress
Here’s what’s going on: the body stops producing insulin, the hormone that helps regulate blood sugar. Without it, glucose can’t fuel cells and insulin becomes non-negotiable. For many children, that means multiple injections a day, every day, alongside monitoring and constant decision-making. And then there’s the part we don’t talk about enough:
The invisible labour of caregiving.
In most families, it’s mothers who become the 24/7 managers, the ones doing the maths, carrying the fear, fielding the myths, and keeping the day moving.
This is where our case study begins. We worked with Diabetes Research & Care center to address the 12 month long journey it takes for the caregivers (our supermoms) to manage the condition well with their kids.
The Challenge: When a Health Condition Becomes a Daily System
Type 1 diabetes management isn’t a single behaviour. It’s a chain of behaviours, repeated across the day:
Checking glucose. Interpreting numbers. Correcting highs and lows. Balancing food and activity.Handling school, travel, festivals, sickness, sleep, and hormones, all of which can shift glucose levels. So the real problem involves decision fatigue + emotional load + social pressure, playing out in a family system.
Key Insight:
In long-term caregiving, behaviour change is rarely about “knowing what to do”. It’s about being able to do it, every day, under stress.
A Day in the Life of a Caregiver (AKA SuperMom)
Imagine this:
The first thing you do after waking up is checking your child’s glucose level and the way your child squirms every time you prick them never gets easier. Too low? You give them a glucose fix. Too high? You calculate the insulin dose.
Breakfast can’t be a simple jam and toast. It needs a balance of nutrition and carbohydrates. And everything from the time of day to the child’s hormone levels can influence glucose levels, so you’re constantly on alert.
All this even before your child has stepped into school.
This is the reality for families raising children with Type 1 diabetes with caregivers often navigating misinformation overload, judgement from others, and the exhausting myth that moms are somehow to blame for the diagnosis. Research consistently shows how intense and complex parental caregiving becomes in paediatric Type 1 diabetes emotionally and practically.
The Steep Learning Curve (and why it takes 10–12 months)
In our work with Diabetes Research & Care Center, we zoomed in on a specific point in the journey:
It takes 10 to 12 months for caregivers to feel confident managing Type 1 diabetes.
And this delay is rooted in: Medical complexity. New routines. Fear of emergencies. Social stigma. Isolation. And a constant sense that one wrong step could harm their child.
So we asked a question that shaped the project: Why take 12 months when you can do it in 3?
Here’s what we’ve learnt across public health and community programs:
Solving problems is rarely about throwing information at people. It’s about understanding why people act the way they do, and what makes change hard (or possible) in their context.
So we used SBC principles to do three things:
1) Identify the barriers
Misinformation. Stigma. Isolation. Lack of support.
2) Understand the mindset
Fear and overload are real so we focused on building trust, simplifying complex information, and addressing emotional needs alongside practical ones.
3) Create solutions that stick
Not a one-size-fits-all module but a program designed around what caregivers actually need to feel empowered.
Key Insight:
If the daily system stays heavy, education won’t translate into action. The design has to reduce the load not increase it.
What We Built: A Co-designed Ecosystem (Not a Single Tool)
The answer was an interactive online programme, co-designed with caregivers themselves, packed with:
1) A Learning App
We went interactive with games, quizzes, and stories. With content in English and Hinglish, learning became accessible, visual, and less intimidating.
2) Workshops
Monthly sessions with experts and other SuperMoms not just to teach, but to build a support system. Because management isn’t only clinical; it’s also social and emotional.
3) A WhatsApp Community of SuperMoms
Quick tips, recipes, festival hacks, celebration shoutouts, travel advice, “what to do if glucose drops suddenly” a lifeline that fits into daily life.
The Five Areas We Anchored the Programme Around
We zeroed in on five key areas (directly reflecting what caregivers told us they need):
Care – Type 1 information, medical treatment, mental health
Food – personalised plans, carb counting, everyday recipes, cheat sheets
Fitness – everyday exercises, hacks and tips
Lifestyle – teaching Type 1 to others, body development, lifestyle choices
Parenting – parenting advice, tackling parental burnout and guilt
Key Insight:
When programmes mirror real mental models (“what I worry about daily”), people stay engaged.
Why It Worked: Turning a 12-month journey into 3 months
This is what changed:
We reduced friction (no jargon dumps, no overwhelming content)
We built confidence through interaction (practice, not passive reading)
We normalised the experience (moms weren’t “alone” anymore)
We designed support into the system (workshops + WhatsApp reinforcement)
By focusing on the why behind behaviours, we could educate and empower.
And that’s how we turned a daunting 12-month learning curve into just 3 months.
What We Learnt (and what might be useful for your programs)
If you’re working on any program where people must sustain complex behaviours over time (health, caregiving, adherence, prevention, wellbeing), a useful reminder is:
People don’t fail programs. Programs fail people’s realities.
Design for the reality:
emotional overload
stigma
low trust
isolated decision-making
fragmented support systems
That’s where SBC stops being theory and becomes practical.
If you’re designing similar programs for complex social issues and want them to be innovative, effective, and sustainable, we’d love to think alongside you.
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