The AADE MO CB is proud to present the winners for the DM Awareness Challenge.
Cynthia Brouk, et al
Carla A. Glaus, et al
Jenna Hawkins, et al
Charlene Windsor
Kathy Woolery
Below is a brief description of each of the initiatives undertaken by each of the winners who will receive a $25 Starbucks gift card.
- Cynthia Brouk and her colleagues lead a poster session during the month at their practice site discussion hypoglycemia symptoms and treatment. They reached over 50 people with this event. Additionally, they hold events throughout the year such as fundraisers, cooking classes, and community health fairs and share this information with their department.
- Carla Glaus submitted the following paragraph on behalf of herself and her colleagues: “Southeast HEALTH Diabetes Center in Cape Girardeau, MO is dedicated to providing education for people with diabetes of all ages. The number of Americans-40% or more than 100 million adults are living with diabetes and pre diabetes according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Education is the key to improved management and or prevention. Besides providing individual and group class diabetes education, the staff at the Diabetes Center are also involved with community events as well. Monthly support group meetings are held on a variety of topics that are geared towards people with diabetes (PWP). Educators educate school staff on keeping children with diabetes safe at schools and or day cares. Grandparent and caregiver classes are also offered as needed to families of a child with diabetes. We are also proud to be part of the Living well with diabetes educational seminar to be offered to our community on November 6, 2019 as part of diabetes awareness month. The program will involve a panel of experts to discuss options available to treat or even prevent diabetes and restore health. The panel will consist of certified diabetes educators (RN and RD) from the Diabetes Center, an endocrinologist, a cardiologist and a wound care nurse. We also reached out to a local library and offered to present a general program on diabetes during the month of November. Educators must think out the box and be more present in the community. Our staff at the Diabetes Center serves as a great resource and will continue to improve our services to meet the needs of all people living with diabetes.”
- Jenna Hawkins and her colleagues submitted the following information: “Here at SEMO Drug, over the past year we have offered a free diabetic care club program to the patients that fill at our pharmacy. This program allows us to provide monthly testing supplies to our diabetic patients for free if they fill their maintenance medications with us each month. The patients are given a free blood glucose meter initially, then are given one hundred alcohol pads, lancets, and test strips each month if they are on insulin or every other month if they take tablets. We feel that this helps to reduce a tremendous burden with our patients as many insurance plans do not cover testing supplies. This program helps allows our patients to have access to supplies so they can test on a daily basis to see if their blood sugar controlled. We also often try to find coupon cards to help patients afford their medications when necessary. Patients in the boot heel of Missouri typically lack health literacy, are undereducated, do not see their health as a priority, and income is often minimal. Our pharmacy recently was accredited with the American Association of Diabetes and is now offering diabetic education to individuals in our area. With this program we strive to expand individuals knowledge about diabetes. Typically, we teach the patient about appropriate blood sugar goals, testing, proper physical activity plans, appropriate diets, medication adherence, weight loss plans, etc. We also have a sync program that our diabetic patients can opt into to improve monthly medication adherence, which leads to overall better control usually. We also just started strip packing medications which will help improve adherence with our patients, including diabetics. During the month of November, we plan to promote Diabetes Awareness. We plan to offer free blood sugar checks on Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the month. We also plan to use our social media (Facebook) account to advertise and to post facts and statistics about diabetes mellitus weekly. We also plan to promote this in store. We also are encouraging staff to wear blue on Fridays. In order to wear blue employees must donate $1, and at the end of the month we plan to donate this money to a diabetic charity such as the ADA, JDRF, etc.”
- Charlene Windsor participated in advocacy initiatives such as increasing affordability of insulin and expansion of Medicaid services, in addition to using her social media pages as a platform to disperse information regarding these important issues.
- Kathy Woolery was active in advocacy, reaching out to her regional members of congress to ask for support of diabetes related issues or to request non-support of proposals/bills that may negatively affect those within our state with diabetes.
Thank you to all that submitted the wonderful things you did throughout the month of November and year round. The MO CB is made up of strong Diabetes Care and Education Specialists and we love to hear about your work. Please feel free to continue to share what you are doing throughout the year and keep an eye out for future challenges.
Happy Holidays!
Amanda