By Peter Rohloff | Medical Director
Dear Friends, this has been a really busy week for the diabetes program.
In previous months, I've hinted to you about the new educational initiative for diabetes patients that we are rolling out. Education, as you might expect, is a huge part of any diabetes program. Over the years, we've developed a number of educational materials for our patients, and our nurses and community health promoters also provided individualized, one-on-one education during regular home visits to patients and their families.
However, one big area that has been missing still is the creation of a sense of community among the diabetes patients themselves. For example, as we noted in a recent research publication (see the link below), many diabetics feel alone with their disease. They often also feel stressed by pressures within their own families that prevent them from making good health and dietary choices. To combat this, we are instituting peer support groups for our patients, which will meet regularly and will be facilitated by our health promotion staff. In the United States and other developed countries, this strategy has been very successful at improving patient satisfaction and also disease control, and we are looking forward to seeing what happens with our patients!
To make this program a success, we've brought on a new volunteer, who just arrived in Guatemala and will be working full time on this project over the coming year, helping our local staff get the program up to speed.
Thanks for your support!
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