I bet that you are excited about the upcoming ADCES20...only a few days away! I feel like a kid at Christmas waiting to open presents. As diabetes care and education specialists, we fill our toolkits through the knowledge and skills we gain through the ADCES conferences each year, and this year will be no exception. So, you may not immediately identify the connection between building your advocacy (for persons with diabetes and our specialty) skills and knowledge through ADCES20. No worries. I will share with you the connection.
An easy place to start is at the ADCES booth in the virtual exhibit hall. There, you’ll find some great resources and tools developed by the ADCES Advocacy Committee that you can use immediately to begin advocacy efforts in your state. Kate Thomas, director of advocacy, will be on hand to answer any questions you may have. To help you schedule, the exhibit hall will open on Thursday - Sunday so you can squeeze time to “stop by” between your education sessions or hands on training. There is more opportunity through the educational sessions.
Educational sessions are another avenue for building up your toolkit although simply looking at the name does not always make it obvious. On Thursday (Clinical Integration Day), during our general session, “Putting the Vision Pillars into Practice in Public and Community Health”, the panelists will provide practical action tips to advocate for technology and cardiometabolic health, addressing health disparities. Additionally, the session, “Advocating for the 4 Critical Times for DSMES with Primary Care Providers”, will equip DCES to articulate these critical times to providers who coordinate care for many persons with diabetes. Many other sessions sprinkled throughout the conference such as “Practical Support for those Managing Diabetes during Challenging Times” are filled with practical resources that share the voice of the person with or risk for diabetes. Friday’s theme, Racial Equity, hits at the heart of advocacy as we as DCES advocate for all of our patients through identification of individualized needs for each patient. As you learn about technology specifically the what, when, where and how of these amazing (and ever-changing) tools, you can educate patients of the technology possibilities for their diabetes and advocate for their access to these tools. Sunday’s sessions will surely not disappoint while linking to advocacy. But how? Diabetes does not occur alone so we must consider all chronic conditions that person with or at risk of diabetes may have. Depression, anxiety, diabetes distress and other chronic mental health conditions are prevalent among persons with diabetes and prediabetes. In order to truly understand how to advocate fully for our patients, our toolkit for mental health and related conditions must be up to date with the latest research and resources.
Lastly, we have an advocacy poster which links directly with the ADCES advocacy resources available in the virtual booth. The poster will center around state advocacy highlighting our new state resources and practical tips for engaging at the state level. So, I hope that you can more clearly see the connection between building up your advocacy tool kit and ADCES20. I will leave with you a word of encouragement to take what you learn and put into action one step at a time.