By Sarah McIlveen | Managing Director of Gift Planning
It’s our pleasure to share with you our progress report for the Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center detailing another year of accomplishments and growth we’ve achieved.
Cultivation of our social and emotional support services continues and remains a strong focus for our clinic. In addition to our long-standing Type 1 Support Group, our Licensed Clinical Social Worker established a family based support group-FAD (Families Affected by Diabetes). The group meets monthly and attracts parents, grandparents, and support givers from around the Portland area.
Our Center continues to offer research opportunities that allow patients a chance to participate in development of new therapies for diabetes, as well as advances in technology to monitor and treat diabetes. At the 76th Annual ADA Scientific Sessions in New Orleans this June where nearly 18,000 endocrinologists, PhDs, nurses, dietitians, and psychologists reported the latest research and the “best practices” in diabetes care, the Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center had seven presentations resulting from research on a broad spectrum of topics ranging from using alert dogs vs. continuous glucose monitoring to the impact of proposed fast acting insulin products on the effectiveness of artificial pancreas systems.
In November, we organized and lead training of Spanish speaking community health workers throughout Portland. We reached nearly 100 individuals working in Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Yamhill counties. Community health workers assist patients with self-management of diabetes and through our training gained detailed information about the components of healthy meals for a person with diabetes, practiced testing blood sugar and using a blood sugar monitor, drawing and injecting insulin, listing the signs, symptoms and treatment for a low blood sugar reaction and learned information to demystify common myths in the Latino community around diabetes and insulin. Participants were provide with an extensive Trainer Kit to enhance their work with individuals with diabetes and overwhelming rated the program a success. This fall, we will be expanding the program thanks in part to a grant from Novo Nordisk.
Thank you again for your partnership and trust that allow the Center to mean so much to all those whom we serve.
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