Public:
Diabetes education programs are available to the communities in
the 15 counties in NW Illinois. The program, tailored to the audience,
may be a single speaker or a panel of health experts. Programs
can be presented with another community or regional organization.
The
Annual Health Education Fair, co-sponsored with the Rock River
Association of Diabetes Educators, is held in the spring in Rockford.
Look for announcements about this event in the NIDC newsletter,
NIDC Notes.
If
your organization is interested in a diabetes education program,
please contact NIDC at 815-395-5727.
Professional:
NIDC participates with regional organizations to present to healthcare
professionals updates on diabetes. These events vary from small
group problem-based learning to seminars with multiple speakers
and workshops. Physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, dietitians,
and office staff personnel have all been included in these learning
experiences. If your healthcare organization would like to collaborate
with NIDC to present or plan a program, please contact Joella
Warner or Paul Burkholder at 815-395-5727 or 5703.
NIDC
collaborates with the Rock River Association of Diabetes Educators
and the Rock River Valley Dietetic Association in planning the
Annual Diabetes Conference at the University Of Illinois College
Of Medicine at Rockford. Co-sponsored by the University and these
organizations, this all-day event is targeted towards health care
professionals.
The
Beyer Elementary School Project:
NIDC has developed a school-based project to decrease obesity
in children and to decrease the risk of diabetes these children
face later in life. Using healthy nutrition and physical activity
as building blocks, this program brings to the school the Coordinated
Approach to Child Health, or CATCH, curriculum. This well-tested
curriculum addresses the educational and behavior change needs
for the students, faculty, parents, and community. Recent developments
in this program include:
- NIDC
assuming leadership in providing two days a week, two hours
of vigorous physical activity for After School Program classes.
-
Formation of the Beyer School Health Committee with representation
by collaborating health-related organizations.
NIDC
plans to use the best parts from this project in other schools
in our region.
The presence of the world-wide epidemic in children and adults
of obesity, the metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes results
in premature morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease
and diabetes-related disabilities. The causes of these conditions,
inherited genetic, environmental, and acquired lifestyle-related
factors impact upon infants and children and continue throughout
life. The significant increase in type 2 diabetes and metabolic
syndrome-related disorders in childhood and adolescence has led
NIDC to develop a school and community-based interventional program
designed to address this significant health problem. This program
is expected to span multiple years and is designed to be a fully
collaborative effort between NIDC and other agencies.
• The long-term objective of this project is to implement
a school and community-based initiative that strives to improve
child health and to reduce the burden of lifestyle-related chronic
disease(s) in these elementary school students.
• The primary goal of this community-based pilot project
is to implement at Charles Beyer Elementary School in District
205, a school-based program that utilizes elements designed
to reduce childhood obesity and associated precursors of obesity-related
chronic diseases. Initiatives integral to this goal are oriented
to:
1. Improve health-related habits for the child to reduce lifestyle-related
chronic diseases
2. Effect progressive adoption of Coordinated Approach to
Child Health (CATCH) curriculum by the faculty and initiation
of CATCH elements that pertain to families and community
3. Establish an enhanced school environment conducive to student
learning about and active participation in healthy eating
and physical activity
4. Develop collaborative, integrative initiatives and activities
conducive to greater student, family, and faculty participation
in health-related practices
5. Design the project to work in harmony with students, parents,
and faculty in order to foster building trust and cooperation
in the community of Beyer School (this is the rationale for
designing anonymity into Phase 1 qualitative and quantitative
data elements)
6. Collect evidence documenting improvements in program-related
outcomes using the following tools: the CDC-authored School
Health Index (SHI), the annual aggregate Body Mass Index (BMI)
results for each grade of students, and survey responses from
students, parents, and faculty.
• The initial portion, labeled “Phase 1”,
of this project has been approved by the IRB of UICOM-R and
has been presented to and approved by the Superintendent of
District 205. Partnering with NIDC in this venture are members
of the Beyer School Health Committee who include: Beyer Elementary
School, Rockford College, the Blackhawk School-Linked Clinic
sponsored by the Winnebago County Health Department, the Rockford
Asthma Consortium, and NIDC leadership including the NIDC part-time
employed Project Director.
Central
to Phase 1 of the program is step-wise acceptance and integration
by the faculty of CATCH into the Beyer School K-5 curricula that
address nutrition and physical exercise. The curricula and exercise
equipment for this project supplied to Beyer School came from
the State of Illinois and NIDC funding. To date, the remainder
of the funding for this NIDC initiative including staff salary
and program expenses has come entirely from gifts and donations.
The
intent of this project is to continue installation of CATCH, sponsor
educational and social marketing efforts directed towards students
and parents, and continue the NIDC portion (two hours per session
and two sessions per week) of the Beyer School after-school program
(ASP). This latter initiative provides children enrolled in the
ASP vigorous exercise experience and learning about healthy nutrition
and group dynamics related to play and exercise. NIDC is collecting
and will evaluate quantitative and qualitative outcome data elements
related to the ASP. The goal is to expand the NIDC portion of
the ASP from the current two days per week to 4 days per week.
It
is intended that the outcome results from Phase 1 will lead to
developing major grant applications to enable initiation of Phase
2 of this project. Phase 2 will encompass additional program elements
of risk screening and finally the clinical testing of the at-risk
children for prediabetes, T2D, and associated metabolic syndrome
elements. Furthermore, it is the intent to introduce the effective
elements of this project into other urban or rural schools.
