SIU Family Medicine Recognized for Diabetes Education
Program empowers patients
The Department of Family and Community Medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine has been awarded recognition from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) for its diabetes self-management education program.
The Association’s Education Recognition Certificate assures that educational programs meet the national standards for diabetes self-management education programs.
“The process gives professionals a national standard by which to measure the quality of services they provide,” said Janet Albers, MD, chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at SIU School of Medicine. “And, of course, it assures the patient that he or she will likely receive high-quality service.”
Programs apply for recognition voluntarily. Education recognition status is verified by the ADA and awarded for four years. A recognized program indicates compliance with the national standards for greater consistency of the quality and quantity of education offered by health professionals to people with diabetes.
“Self-management education is an essential component of diabetes treatment,” said Albers. “We empower our patients by providing self-care skills that will promote better management of their diabetes treatment regimen. Through the support of our health care team and increased knowledge and awareness of diabetes, patients can assume a major part of the responsibility for their diabetes management.” Unnecessary hospital admissions and some of the acute and chronic complications of diabetes may be prevented through self-management education.
According to the American Diabetes Association, 29.1 million people (9.3% of the population) in the United States have diabetes. While an estimated 21 million have been diagnosed, 8.1 million people are unaware that they have this disease. Many will first learn that they have diabetes when they are treated for one of its life-threatening complications – heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and nerve disease and amputation. About 1.7 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in the US in people aged 20 years or older in 2012. Diabetes contributed to 234,051 deaths in 2010, making it the seventh leading cause of death in the US. Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of people of similar age but without diabetes.
ABOUT SIU CENTER FOR FAMILY MEDICINE: The SIU Center for Family Medicine, located in Springfield, has been serving patients in central Illinois for more than 40 years. In 2012, it was designated a federally qualified health center or FQHC, also referred to as a community health center. In August it will open a new 30,000 square foot facility to increase access to care. The Center also added a new access point in Quincy, Illinois, in July 2015. Together, they serve 22,000 patients annually with more than 75,000 visits, and both are family medicine residency and physician assistant training sites.
For more information, contact Anne Daly at 757-8137.
