Diabetes educator Helen Lamech leads change by empowering others

In the diabetes capital of the world, one nurse is pioneering diabetes education and demonstrating that true leadership comes by empowering others.

Helen Lamech Health and Wellbeing Leader at the NTNews Leader of the year award 2025, Mindil Beach. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

See a problem, and try to help fix it.

It can be that simple for people like Helen Lamech.

The nurse and diabetes educator was named the NT News Territory Leader of the Year, brought to you by Sitzler at an awards ceremony in Darwin last week.

Based at Healthy Living NT in Alice Springs, Ms Lamech, who also claimed the Health and Wellbeing Leader of the Year award, has pioneered diabetes services in Central Australia that are nation-leading and Territory focused.

There’s the technical side, helping with insulin pumps, glucose meters and medicines.

But the truly transformative work is social and emotional – forming true bonds with patients and empowering communities to take ownership of their own health.

“It’s more counselling than clinical,” she laughs.

“I was thinking about ‘leadership’ – I’m not appointed as a leader. But if you can listen, and make them feel good, people will follow.”

The NT is the type 2 diabetes capital of the world, and rates are getting worse.

It’s estimated almost one in three Aboriginal adults in remote NT communities live with the condition, compared with one in 22 nationally.

“Type 2, they call it lifestyle, but it’s more than lifestyle in the Northern Territory. It’s the whole social determinant of health – education, income, availability of unhealthy food. If you don’t know what you don’t know, or you don’t have choices, you just go for the easy option,” Ms Lamech said.

Helen Lamech says her work is often more counselling than clinical. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Changing a lifetime of habits is hard, but Ms Lamech’s commitment has delivered some incredible results.

In one case, Jimmy* almost exclusively drank Coca-Cola, downing litres of soft drink every day.

His parents and family members had diabetes, some on dialysis and others with amputations, so Ms Lamech knew the 26-year-old was at real risk.

“If your sugar levels are really, really high, your blood becomes thick like honey. So wherever the blood goes it’s going to start damaging everything.

“I had to make it so that he was making a choice. Not just me telling him, ‘hey, stop drinking Coke, drink water’.

“He didn’t want to go on dialysis, and he loved his teeth, so we built that relationship and spoke about how powerful water is, and changed those habits by substituting one glass of water at a time.”

The change was striking; Jimmy’s energy was back, he was able to go to work, and rejoin his football team.

“It was like, we can all do that – just changing one thing, it doesn’t have to be complex, you know?”

In 2011: preparing for a charity tennis tournament.

The relationships Ms Lamech builds with her patients reveal a dedication beyond any nine to five.

Attending Jimmy’s footy matches, visiting homes, having an open door for families to pop in, and living by example: going for runs, volunteering as a tennis coach, and encouraging patients to join her at a free Zumba class.

It also meant uprooting her Darwin life to settle in Alice Springs, turning a three month secondment into six years and counting.

“When I first came to Alice Springs there were people living with diabetes and they were all very secretive, because there was no one staying here long enough to build that relationship … when they found out we bought a house, that’s when a whole flocks of people started coming in,” Ms Lamech said.

Amid the influx Ms Lamech quickly realised it was more than one person could handle – she had to help the community help each other.

So she started community catch-up groups, peer-to-peer support networks that have grown from two to more than 100 families.

Ms Lamech’s office is now covered in pictures of people with diabetes who act as mentors and leaders.

Helen Lamech’s office is covered in pictures of people with diabetes who act as community mentors and leaders.

She is also invested in training other nurses and doctors, as well as developing her own skills.

Ms Lamech is studying to become a qualified nurse practitioner, which will allow her patients to avoid doctors fees and wait-times for vital insulin prescriptions.

That same motivation to help others was what drew her to healthcare in the Territory as a young graduate, and prompted the switch from dialysis nursing to diabetes.

“When I first started there was only about 10 people on dialysis, and each year it was doubling in size, and now they’ve got hundreds,” she said.

“Majority of the renal disease was caused by diabetes, and I thought if I fix diabetes, then we will save money, we will stop this.”

Ms Lamech’s recognition as Territory Leader of the Year caps off a stellar year, with her dedicated service recognised across the Territory and nation.

“The more I reflect on my award, the more emotional I get,” she said.

“I keep thinking about why I was chosen and what it really means. This leadership award means so much because it was chosen by the community. They’re the ones who saw me as a leader, and that makes it incredibly special.”

Originally published as Diabetes educator Helen Lamech leads change by empowering others