Diabetes Awareness Program
The Diabetes Awareness Program assists clients and families to prevent or delay diabetes and its complications by promoting education and treatment, community awareness, healthy lifestyle changes, and early detection. This is achieved by the Diabetes Awareness Team working in conjunction with other Community Services programs, Medical, Dental, Behavioral Health and Nutrition services. We work to support our clients with diabetes to live well and receive quality care.
Certified Diabetes Educators
A Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) is a health professional who possesses specific knowledge of prediabetes, diabetes prevention, and management. They have passed a national exam that allows them to coach patients with diabetes and how to manage their condition.
Diabetes Nurse Educator
The Diabetes Nurse Educator educates clients and family members about all aspects of diabetes self-management and help with everyday challenges that doctors often don’t have time to address.
- Help answer questions (medications, lab results, symptoms, etc.).
- Teach blood glucose monitoring.
- Provide information on healthy coping and reducing risks.
- Help you figure out how to manage your diabetes with a plan to fit your lifestyle.
Registered Dietician
Clients with Diabetes have the opportunity to meet with a Registered Dietician who has received extra training on how your diet relates to your medications and exercise routines. The Registered Dietician focuses on the needs of the client and preventing diabetes progression.
- Set up a meal plan to meet your particular needs.
- Provide information on balancing food with medications and physical activity.
- Teach you about counting carbohydrates or control portion sizes and why it’s important.
- Help you learn how the foods you eat affect your blood sugar and blood fat levels.
Health Lifestyle Balance
Fitness Coordinator
The Fitness Coordinator can help you create an exercise plan by suggesting and discussing
activities you feel match your fitness level and individualized goal.
- Help you set and track for a variety of goals. Examples include increased endurance, speed, or frequency of activity.
- Facilitates movement activities such as swimming group.
- Offers one-on-one fitness room consultations.
Nutritionist
The Nutritionist offers personalized nutritional information and support to help you set and achieve realistic goals.
- Teach you how to read food labels and which numbers to pay attention to
- Help you plan for eating out and special events
- Suggest food substitutions for snacking or cooking
- Help you create, track, revise meal plans
Physical Activity Lifestyle Specialist
The Physical Activity Lifestyle Specialist (PALS) facilitates and assists in group activities to promote a healthy lifestyle balance.
- Works with clients and family members to identify ways to increase exercise.
- Offers group activities such as Tai Chi and Walking Group in Del Norte County.
- Helps clients achieve specific weight loss behavior change goals in a step-wise fashion.
- Offers tools to for tracking healthy habits such as physical activity logs and food tracking booklets.
Programs for People with Diabetes
The Diabetes Awareness Program offers a variety of opportunities for UIHS clients who have diabetes. These programs are dependent on funding availability.
- American Indian clients who have diabetes can apply for funding support to join a weight loss program or physical activity program. Applications are available from the Community Services Division.
- Repchem monthly newsletter
- Weekly swimming group at the Arcata Community Pool
Experiment in the Kitchen!
People are seemingly happy about the chance to have more time to experiment in the kitchen! UIHS Diabetes Awareness Program has put together a variety of recipes to offer ideas in support of your culinary ventures.
Quick/trendy meals One-pot meals Wraps
Budget friendly Freezer for later Smoothies
There’s also information and tips on a “base shopping list” and suggestions for ingredients to add to make recipes more balanced.
Is that metformin my doctor prescribed me going to give me cancer?
Many of you have heard on the news about a recall of metformin extended release. Let’s try to understand what the concern is about.
When medications are made and “purified”, they sometimes undergo a chemical process resulting in very small amounts of certain unwanted chemicals called “impurities”. Sometimes, some part of the medication may breakdown or be changed into other substances under conditions like heat, light exposure, moisture or just over time.
Medications approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) are tightly regulated and watched for such impurities. Some of the extended release forms of metformin (metformin ER) have been found to have higher than accepted levels of the chemical N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in it. This is only true for some batches from a few drug manufacturers. Although present at low levels in our environment including tap water, bacon, beer, and tobacco products, NDMA may cause some forms of cancer when present at higher levels over extend periods of time. It has not been found in any of the regular release metformin brands at this time.
We at UIHS are very aware of this news and are keeping a close watch on such alerts and recalls. So far, none of the metformin ER dispensed from UIHS pharmacy have been involved in a recall. UIHS pharmacists and staff keep a close watch on all recalls and alerts daily. If there is a recall of a medication you have received that poses a danger to you, we will let you know right away.
We know taking medications sometimes feels scary. Providers only prescribe medications when it is necessary to improve your health. UIHS providers try to make sure this is done under the safest circumstances possible. We have special alerts in our electronic medical record software that help make sure we don’t give you medications that interact in an unsafe way. If you ever have questions about the medication you are taking please speak with your medical provider, your pharmacist, or the diabetes team if they are involved in your care.
Respectfully submitted,
Terry Raymer MD, CDE, UIHS Diabetes Program
Timothy Connell PharmD, UIHS Pharmacy Director
