Small Towns and Big Cities Need Diabetes Services
By Nina Figueroa, Program Coordinator, Health Promotion Council
Across the country, rural, urban, and suburban stakeholders from multiple sectors are joining forces to prevent and mitigate the negative health impacts of the diabetes epidemic. As a Program Coordinator at Health Promotion Council, I work within the Pennsylvania Community Clinical Integration Initiative (PA CCI), which aims to build the capacity of health systems and community partners to offer diabetes prevention programs (DPP) and diabetes self-management education (DSME) services and increase access and utilization by those in needs of these services.
My work brings me across many places in Pennsylvania. During a recent partner visit to Pittsburgh, I attended the AADE Western Pennsylvania Local Networking Group (LNG) for a strategy discussion about actions that providers can take to meet the challenges of patient engagement, gaining referrals, and sustainability. Within the same month, I was part of a very similar conversation at the AADE Southeastern Pennsylvania Local Network Group meeting. The geographic diversity between these coverage areas belies the notion that diabetes is an exclusive disease state.
Every day, part of my role is to explore how the diverse network of insurance companies, public health officials, clinical practitioners, and diabetes program providers can create a new paradigm for addressing diabetes across Pennsylvania and the United States. To date, PA CCI has accomplished:
- successful technical assistance to many DSME and DPP sites across the state to increase referrals through marketing support and become certified programs eligible for reimbursement;
- engagement of Medicaid Managed Care Organizations working in collaboration to identify barriers and solutions to increasing utilization of DPP and DSME among clinical and patient/member stakeholders; and,
- co-sponsorship of diabetes related conferences and media campaigns to raise awareness about the diabetes epidemic in Pennsylvania.
PA CCI is working hard as a support center for stakeholders taking action to address diabetes. We invite you to take the following actions to become connected to our diabetes prevention and self-management efforts.
1. Share your program and organizational DSME/DPP program information for promotion within our existing networks via our website at www.communityclinicalintegration.org or email to PACCI@phmc.org. For a list of DSME programs in Pennsylvania, please visit http://www.health.state.pa.us/diabetesmap/.
2. Sign up at our website to request technical assistance related to diabetes prevention and diabetes self management education programming.
3. Promote the Make A Choice Campaign, aimed to increase the utilization of DSME and DPP programs and promote healthy living and weight management among Pennsylvanians diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and obesity. Please visit www.makeachoice.org for more information.