Wales is developing a diabetes mental health pathway to give people faster access to specialist support, in what experts say is a UK first.
The model aims to provide more joined-up support for people whose mental health and diabetes management are closely tied together.
It follows growing concern that people with diabetes are often passed between physical and mental health services, with neither properly set up to deal with both together.
Campaigners and clinicians say the new model could help fill a major gap in care, especially for people struggling with burnout, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder or insulin omission.
Naomi Durham, from Cardiff, said severe post-natal depression after the birth of her second daughter left her feeling numb and hopeless.
At her lowest point, she stopped taking the insulin she needed for her type 1 diabetes, leading to repeated admissions to hospital with diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication caused by a lack of insulin.
She said the diabetes team treated her situation as a mental health issue, while mental health services treated it as a diabetes issue.
She said peer support groups, online communities and charity services helped more than formal services, but believes people in her position need better holistic assessment and clearer routes into the right help.
Poet Duke Al described a different but related experience.
After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, he said the condition collided badly with his existing obsessive compulsive disorder. Intrusive thoughts around numbers led him at times to inject the wrong amount of insulin or avoid injecting altogether.
He described diabetes burnout, and the constant demand of managing blood sugar, insulin, food and exercise, as overwhelming.
Although he now feels in a much better place, he said there was not a huge amount of mental health support available that really understood diabetes.
That lack of joined-up care is exactly what the new pathway is supposed to address.
Dr Rose Stewart, diabetes psychology lead for Wales, said diabetes is relentless and can have a huge psychological impact.
She said many people feel as though they are being asked to do the work of their own pancreas around the clock, without ever getting a break.
Her team is developing a national model of care intended to give people in Wales quicker access to specialist support in different formats, including online help, one-to-one therapy, crisis care and training for diabetes staff to better deal with psychological distress.
You can have a good HbA1c, a blood test that measures average blood sugar levels over the previous two to three months, and still be struggling badly.
Equally, poor diabetes management is not always just about knowledge or motivation. It can be bound up with depression, burnout, fear, trauma or obsessive thinking.
This new pathway matters because it treats the person as a whole, rather than trying to separate physical health from mental health when, for many people with diabetes, the two are inseparable.