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14th
Sep 2021
Sep 2021
County Program Offers Education, Outreach For Those With Diabetes
If you or someone you know suffers from Diabetes, the county is offering a resource that can help make their lives just a little easier – and healthier. This is especially important while the country still faces the Covid-19 epidemic, since those with Diabetes are at a far higher risk for hospitalization and death if they contract Covid.
The help comes in the form of the DSMES, or Diabetes Self-Management, Education and Support program, which is currently being run by the Ocean County Health Department (OCHD).
Nationwide, some $237 billion is spent on Diabetes-related medical costs each year.
That is in no small part why the county offers the Diabetes Self-Management, Education and Support program.
The program is designed to help educate those with Diabetes on how to manage it on their own, relying on the latest data and evidence to do so. The idea is to improve the life of those with Diabetes, give them the facts on how to live with the disease day-to-day, and in the end improve their overall health outcomes.
Meg McCarthy-Klein, OCHD Clinical Nutritionist MS, RDN, said the program is likely to offer even those who have lived with Diabetes for many years new information, approaches and strategies they might not have been aware of.
“(The program) offers diabetics so many new tools to use that will certainly offer a better understanding of the disease and the many ways to help them through effective self-management,” McCarthy-Klein said. “The ultimate goal we hope is to provide them with the education and resources they can use to have a better quality of life.”
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), over 34 million Americans suffer from Diabetes, with over 7 million of them doing so without knowing it, i.e. they are undiagnosed. The largest group among them are senior citizens, at about 14.3 million overall – which is close to 27 percent of the total over-65 U.S. population.
As recently as 2017, Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, and that number may in reality be much higher. According to the ADA, “Studies have found that only about 35 percent to 40 percent of people with diabetes who died had diabetes listed anywhere on the death certificate and about 10 percent to 15 percent had it listed as the underlying cause of death.”
The numbers are getting worse. Some health experts are putting more focus on Diabetes-related outreach now than ever for a reason, and it’s something people have been hearing a lot about for over a year and a half now: Covid-19.
Of the more than 630,000 Americans who have died from complications arising from Covid-19, almost 250,000 of them were diabetic. That’s around 40 percent of the total, despite making Diabetics making up just 10 percent of the population.
“The pandemic has had an incredible impact on those living with diabetes,” Daniel Regenye, Health Coordinator/Health Officer for the OCHD, said in a written statement. “If you are a person living with diabetes and haven’t been vaccinated – now is the time. We’ve been urging everyone in the high risk groups to get the vaccine, but the latest data shows that the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 are 6 to 12 times higher for people with diabetes. I can’t reiterate the message enough, but the COVID-19 vaccines save lives.”
Classes for the program are being held at the Ocean County Health Department headquarters, 175 Sunset Ave., Toms River, on an irregular basis. For the current schedule, contact the Department at 732-341-9700, ext. 7237.
“We’re extremely proud to provide this service for our residents and the valuable benefits it has demonstrated for those living with diabetes,” said Ocean County Commissioner Gerry P. Little.
By Eric San Juan